"Yare yare daze," he muttered, sitting down on Tomoko Higashikata's couch as their kids and Akira Otoishi set up for a karaoke session – of all the annoying things they could possibly be doing with their time – with Tomoko herself plopping down next to him.

"Come on, I think it's cute," Tomoko said, grinning at him as their kids started singing, accompanied by Otoishi on that guitar of his. "The kids are having fun, at least."

Not bothering with a response, Jotaro returned his attention to the list of Stand users that Nijimura had given to him. There seemed to be only a couple of them left, exactly two: a cat, and a boy around Josuke's age by the name of Yuya Fungami. The cat would likely be an easy find, with The Duke around to search the places where even a Stand using cat might go, but Fungami would likely be even simpler. Fungami had been injured in a motorcycle crash some time earlier.

He was currently in a nearby hospital recovering, so Jotaro thought that it might be best if he brought Josuke along with him, since his Crazy Diamond would be able to heal Fungami, likely giving the kid some more motivation to speak to them, at least. Once the kids had finished their amateur karaoke, Jotaro huffed a chuckle, then rose back to his feet to talk to Josuke.

"What, you mean this guy in the hospital is one of those Stand users you've been looking for?" Josuke asked, looking more than a little surprised at the prospect.

"According to the list that Nijimura gave me, he is," Jotaro said, folding his arms. "He was injured in some kind of motorcycle accident awhile ago, so I thought that you might be interested in paying him a visit when I go to talk to him."

"Yeah, sure," Josuke said. "When are we going to head out?"

"Now," Jotaro said, making his way through the house where he, Kakyoin, and their respective families were currently staying.

Once the pair of them had made their way out of the house, down from the driveway and onto the road with Jotaro's car, he forced all thoughts of the bastard who'd kidnapped Tenmei-chan out of his mind so that he could focus on what he and Josuke were going to be doing.

=DiU=

Once he and his nephew – it was still weird to think of the huge man that way; a man who was actually old enough to be married with a little kid of his own just did not fit the kind of thing Josuke had on his mind when he thought about someone's nephew – had made it into the hospital and started asking around for Yuya Fungami, Josuke found himself wondering just what this new guy was going to be like when they met. He probably wouldn't be too happy, since he had gotten into an accident beforehand, but once Josuke had healed him he'd probably be happier.

He just wondered what kind of person Yuya Fungami was ultimately going to be.

Once Jotaro had managed to get the room number where Fungami-san was staying, number 525, though he'd ended up having to flash what seemed to be some kind of an ID at the reception lady to get the both of them that far, Josuke went back to wondering just what kind of person he and Jotaro were going to end up meeting when they found Fungami-san. Hanging back a step as Jotaro opened the door and let the pair of them in, Josuke raised an eyebrow as he caught sight of the three girls standing around the bed that Fungami-san was laying in.

"So, what brings you two here?" Fungami-san asked, as he and Jotaro made their way inside.

"How'd you know there were two of us?" he asked, confused.

Fungami-san smiled, though not in a way Josuke could say he really liked. "I could smell the two of you before you got here."

Josuke raised an eyebrow, even as he heard the three girls staying in the room with Fungami-san cooing over Jotaro as he stood in the back of the room watching over all of them, and made his way over to the bed where Fungami-san had been laid out for… Well, for however long it'd been since he'd crashed outside that highway tunnel, really.

"Hey, do you really want to stay in here until you heal up, or would you like me to heal you so you can get out of here?" he asked, making his way over to the side of Fungami-san's bed so that he could talk to him without having to yell across the room or something.

"You can do that?" Fungami-san asked, perking right up as he turned to look up at Josuke where he was standing.

"Yeah, my Stand can heal people, and restore things and stuff," he said, feeling more than a little sheepish, what with the way pretty much everyone in the room was looking at him; except for Jotaro, who was looking at the door to make sure no one else came into the room with them.

"Well, sure, that sounds great," Fungami-san said, grinning widely as he held out his right arm. "What do you need me to do? Or should we introduce ourselves first? I'm Yuya Fungami, by the way," he said, before Josuke could say or do anything in response.

"Yeah, I'm Josuke Higashikata," he said, figuring he could at least reciprocate, if Fungami-san was going to offer him that kind of courtesy. "And, you don't have to do anything; Crazy Diamond can handle it from here."

"Crazy Diamond is your Stand's name, huh?" Fungami-san asked, grinning slightly. "Well, my Stand's name is Highway Star. It's nice to have you here, Higashikata-san."

"It's good to meet you, too, Fungami-san," he said, offering a smile even as he called out Crazy Diamond to heal Fungami-san so he could leave the hospital room where he'd been confined.

It couldn't have been comfortable, for someone who seemed to have as much energy as Fungami-san seemed to have, to be confined in one place for so long.

=DiU=

As she continued searching for the Stand using cat that had been listed as one of the last of the two that Keicho Nijimura had created while he'd been in possession of the Stand arrow that either he or someone else had given to him, Alice found herself wondering all over again just where Keicho had received the Arrow from in the first place. The relics themselves seemed to be a rare object, or at least she hadn't seen many of them even during her searches of the world, and even her contacts inside the Speedwagon Foundation hadn't seemed to see many of them.

It was just one more interesting thing that this particularly interesting world had shown to her.

Finding the cat that'd been described to her when she'd pressed for more information from Keicho than just the simple description of "Stand using cat", Alice narrowed the eyes of her Stand as she saw said cat being accosted by what seemed to be an alley cat that had some sort of a problem with the Stand using cat she'd been looking for for such a long time. Directing The Duke to interpose itself between the pair of them, Alice picked the alley cat up by the scruff of its neck, transforming The Duke into the form of a bear – one of the two forms that she used when she was operating as Jack Harper's Stand White Rabbit – Alice tossed the alley cat away and quickly returned to the side of the Stand using cat.

Like Iggy, the cat in front of her seemed wary, but also curious in the way that all cats could be.

Transforming The Duke back into the form of the cat she'd been traveling as, Alice bumped noses with the cat, curious to know just what the cat would make of the Stand she had sent out to meet with them. The cat, for their part, sniffed The Duke in turn. Beckoning for the cat to follow The Duke out of the alley where the pair of them had met.

The pair of them, The Duke and the cat with whatever name their Stand would end up going by, left the alley behind, making their way back out onto the sidewalk and past the people living their many and varied lives within Morioh.

When the pair of them made it back to Josuke's house again, the place where all of them had been operating out of since Jotaro and Noriaki had been sent out by the Speedwagon Foundation, Alice transformed The Duke into a deer so that she would better be able to knock on the door. Noriaki was the one to open it, since it seemed that Jotaro and Josuke were still at the hospital with Yuya Fungami.

"So, it looks like you found what you were looking for, too," Noriaki said, stepping out of the way so that she and the Stand using cat she'd brought to their home could make their way inside at last. "Jotaro just called me; he and Josuke have finished up with Fungami-san; Josuke healed him, and the both of them seem to be getting along well."

"That's good to hear," she said, glancing back at the Stand using cat as they looked around at the living room they'd found themself standing in. "It'll be interesting, hearing what the both of them have to say about that."

=DiU=

It was the first time that he'd actually been able to leave the house, at least since everything had happened, and Tenmei could only be aware of both cousin Gio and Bruno Buccellati following in his footsteps while he made his way into the nearby park. It wasn't the place he'd been kidnapped from, of course, but the both of them seemed to be particularly on their toes while he was out there among them. Tenmei was starting to think that he shouldn't have asked in the first place.

He hadn't wanted to be this much trouble to anyone; really, all he'd wanted was to see something besides the four walls of whatever room he'd ended up staying in.

"I'm sorry for being so much trouble," he said, sighing as he tapped his favorite mechanical pencil against the new pad of sketch paper he'd brought out to this park.

"Don't keep saying that, Tenmei," cousin Gio said, glaring at him. "You needed to get the fresh air; we're just here to make sure nothing happens to you."

"You shouldn't worry about things like that, anyway," Bruno said, folding his arms as he looked around the park the three of them were all sitting in together. "You're not the one being a problem; it's the bastard who kidnapped you who caused all of this in the first place."

"I guess," he said, forcing himself to settle back down as he went back to sketching again.

He still wondered what had happened to his old sketch pad, since no one had been able to find it, or at least they hadn't returned it if they had. He didn't enjoy the thought that he would never get the work he'd done in that last sketch pad back again, but it was starting to seem that that was going to end up being the case. Tenmei didn't like it, but that did seem to be what happened.

Sighing as he went back to work again, Tenmei wondered what could have happened to his old sketch pad.

=DiU=

Once Mom's husband had left for the day, Hayato took a last look in on Mom, just to make sure that she wasn't going to find out about what he was going to be doing. She'd probably tell her husband, and Hayato didn't want to know what would happen to him if he found out about what Hayato was doing. Once Mom was far enough away that she wasn't likely to hear what he was doing, Hayato went down into the basement to look around.

Mom had clearly cleaned up since the last time her husband had been down there, but Hayato looked around all the same; there was a chance that he'd be able to find out what Mom's husband had been looking for down there.

Still, after searching as carefully as he could – since he didn't want to let Mom or especially her husband know what he'd been doing – the only thing Hayato actually found was that someone had cleaned up the shelves and cleared off the floor. Leaving the basement, once he could be sure that Mom wasn't looking for him, Hayato made his way back to his own room to see where Mom currently was. He didn't want to risk running into her while he was searching the attic, either.

Once he'd managed to determine that Mom wasn't close enough to see him or hear him, Hayato made his way to the room that Mom shared with her husband. Ducking into the closet before Mom could get the idea to come back into the room, Hayato pulled the chord that would open the attic door and made his way up. After checking the basement and finding nothing, Hayato didn't know what he was expecting to find.

Whatever he had been expecting to find, it hadn't been a bed, and a side table, both of them tucked neatly in the back corner of the attic, just where the roof started to slope down. Sure, there was no one currently in the bed, but it was obvious that Mom's husband intended to put someone in the bed. The bed itself was too small for someone the size of either Mom or her husband to sleep in comfortably, so Hayato suspected that the bed was meant for someone else; someone smaller.

Hayato suspected that it wasn't going to be him, since the only reason he knew about the bed in the first place was the fact that he'd looked for it in the first place, but he didn't know just who the bed was going to end up being for at all.

Making his way out of the attic, Hayato peeked out through the closet door, making sure that Mom wasn't in the room to see him before he left. Pausing for a second time, to make sure that Mom wasn't standing outside the door or anything like that, before heading back to his room to think about what he'd just learned. He didn't quite know what Mom's husband could have been planning, but it seemed to involve someone about Hayato's size or just a bit bigger. He also seemed to want to keep it a secret from Mom, so it didn't seem like he wanted anything good.

Hayato wished he had more hidden cameras, so he could set them up around the bed and find out who Mom's husband wanted to put in that bed when he'd set it up, but he only had his camcorder left, and that would have been much too easy to find if he left it out.

=DiU=

Narrowing his eyes as he watched the two boys who seemed to be guarding Yoshiko-chan as she sat the in middle of a park very much like the one where fate had first led them together, Yoshikage forced his hands away from his mouth for yet another time. She was here, so close that he could have almost touched her tiny, perfect hands, but still out of his reach with those two boys around her. Waiting and watching, which he could do though he wasn't particularly fond of the inactivity, Yoshikage watched as the three of them prepared to leave the park at last.

Moving as inconspicuously as he could, Yoshikage sent out Killer Queen to turn the trees around them into bombs, just above their heads so that he wouldn't risk damaging Yoshiko-chan's precious hands. And, as he lunged forward to grab the convenient hand-hold that Yoshiko-chan's ponytail made, Yoshikage had Killer Queen kick up enough dust that he would be able to move under cover to take Yoshiko-chan into his arms without being seen by either of the children who had been accompanying her. And, even though one of them did seem to have a comparable sort of ability as Killer Queen, Yoshikage was able to grab Yoshiko-chan and cover her mouth and nose with the chloroform soaked cloth that he'd prepared beforehand.

Yoshiko-chan reached out weakly with her right arm, sending out an odd looking green figure that flickered for a moment, before stumbling and vanishing as she fell limp in his arms. Yoshikage wondered for a moment if she had the same kind of ability as he did, but he could worry about that kind of thing later. He just had to get Yoshiko-chan back home.

Making his way back to his car, since he'd come out to this place on his lunch break, Yoshikage paused for a moment to make sure no one was watching him, before opening his trunk so he could fetch the blanket he'd brought to hide Yoshiko-chan under while she had to stay in his car. Tucking her in as well as he could, Yoshikage tied her wrists and ankles so that even if she did wake up while he was bringing her home, she wouldn't be able to leave him before he'd gotten her back home.

Pausing for a moment, even as he drove back to his current workplace almost as if by rote, Yoshikage called out Killer Queen. He wasn't about to turn his sweet little Yoshiko-chan into a bomb, of course, but since it did seem as though she had the same kind of ability as he did, he wanted to be certain that she wouldn't be able to escape even if she did use whatever her particular ability was. And also so that he could keep an eye on her while he was at work.

The rest of the day passed as usual for him, and Yoshikage soon found himself able to return to the home he had established for himself, making certain that he was fully parked within his garage with both doors firmly closed before Yoshikage made his way to the back of his car. Opening the door, Yoshikage allowed Killer Queen to climb out of the car with Yoshiko-chan cradled gently in the blanket he'd draped carefully over her when he'd taken her back.

The sight of the bundled blanket in Killer Queen's arms squirming brought a small smile to Yoshikage's face, and he pulled the blanket down off of Yoshiko-chan's head even as he covered her mouth with Killer Queen's right hand.

He hadn't truly had the chance to appreciate the soft, lavender color of Yoshiko-chan's eyes, given the way they had always been half-closed when he'd had her in his home. After a long moment spent appreciating them, Yoshikage forced her mouth open so that he could give her one of the sleeping pills he had bought to keep her docile while he got her settled in her new home. Pausing for a moment in the doorway, making certain that that woman he was living with wouldn't see him while he was bringing Yoshiko-chan to her new room, Yoshikage continued on with Killer Queen close behind him.

Making his way back into the room he shared with that woman, Yoshikage pulled open the attic door, proceeding Killer Queen up into the room he'd set up for Yoshiko-chan to stay in. Unwrapping her from the blanket he'd used to hide Yoshiko-chan from the prying eyes of people who wouldn't understand, he sat her down on the bed so that he could take off her shoes and the clothes she'd been wearing in that park. Changing Yoshiko-chan into the sleeping clothes he'd picked up for her, Yoshikage tucked her into her new bed.

The sleeping pill he'd given her was already making Yoshiko-chan drowsy, so it was best she was comfortable while she slept.

=DiU=

Coughing out the last of the dust in his throat, Gio Brando looked around as the dust and scattered wood shrapnel settled back to the ground. Bruno was just getting back to his feet, but cousin Tenmei was nowhere in sight.

"What happened?" Bruno asked, pulling himself back to his feet, dusting himself off and brushing leaves and twigs out of his severely-cut hair.

"I think we were attacked by that same Stand user," Gio said, calling out Gold Experience so that he could turn the larger pieces of shrapnel into birds to both give him and Bruno cover while they worked, and to search for anything that might be able to help them find cousin Tenmei faster. "They kidnapped cousin Tenmei again."

Bruno cursed fluently in Italian, and Gio found himself chuckling as he took note of what the young Italian had said. Something to remember when he and Dad took another vacation to Italy. Still, there didn't seem to be anything that would lead him to cousin Tenmei, nothing he could bring to Uncle Jotaro or Uncle Noriaki to help them search for cousin Tenmei faster.

He and Bruno quickly made their way back to cousin Josuke's house, so they could tell everyone what had happened, and they all could get started looking for cousin Tenmei again.

Once he and Bruno had made it back, Gio took the lead in explaining what had happened to cousin Tenmei, biting his lip as he saw the anguish spreading over Uncle Noriaki's face as he talked. Uncle Jotaro just looked angrier and angrier as he continued on.

"We should've killed that bastard when we had the chance," Uncle Jotaro growled, glaring furiously as Star Platinum emerging from behind him.

"I'm starting to agree with you," Uncle Noriaki said, sighing deeply as he rubbed his face with both hands.

The sound of someone wearing a long robe making their way into the room drew Gio's attention, and he looked over to see Dad's best friend – though he'd never heard the pair of them actually admit it, he'd long since been able to tell how the both of them felt – Enrico Pucci making his way into the living room of cousin Josuke's house to sit with the rest of them.

"Is there some trouble?" Enrico asked, looking around at everyone who had gathered in the room all around them.

"It's the same we were dealing with before," Uncle Jotaro said, and Gio couldn't help but smile as he noticed the way Uncle Jotaro wasn't cursing; it seemed like Enrico's lectures about not swearing in front of him had had some sort of impact.

Even if it was just because he didn't want to hear any more of them.

"Young Tenmei Kakyoin was kidnapped once more?" Enrico asked, a clearly worried expression on his face.

"Yeah, and it sounds like it was by the same guy who came after him the last time," Uncle Jotaro growled, fists clenching on his pants as Star Platinum paced the length of the living room, the rigid tension in the Stand's frame clearly displayed, even as Uncle Jotaro concealed his own under the hat and jacket he always seemed to be wearing.

It was always something Gio noticed, every time he had the chance to spend time with Uncle Jotaro; really, Uncle Jotaro and Uncle Noriaki were such different people, and maybe that was why the pair of them had become such good friends during the time they'd spent in school together.

"Kira, that was the name we found on his house's front gate," Uncle Noriaki said, sitting up straighter, as though the conversation going on all around him had brought him back to himself. "That's at least one way we have to track him."