Chapter Text
On July 16th, 1999, a man’s head is crushed under the wheel of an ambulance that had arrived along with a fire crew to investigate a gas explosion in a nearby house. The paramedic who witnessed the incident eventually tells authorities that the man identified himself as Kira Yoshikage not long before, as well as admitting that he had killed a lot of other young women like her who had pretty hands. The police find little evidence of this in Kira’s abandoned house, and his coworkers can’t offer anything beyond a general consensus that something had always felt “off” about Kira. The investigation is closed almost as soon as it’s started, due to insufficient evidence, and Kira is cremated and buried in the small plot of land his parents had bought for their family years before. With no living relatives to care for it, the gravestones slowly get taken over by moss, and the Kira family fades out of the public’s consciousness.
Another investigation is opened on the 16th when Kawajiri Kosaku is reported missing by his wife, Kawajiri Shinobu, in the late hours of the evening when he fails to come home from work. Shinobu and her son, Hayato, are both interviewed to try and figure out Kosaku’s last-known whereabouts, since he never showed up to work that morning. Shinobu is all too happy to tell investigators all she knows, but Hayato barely answers any questions. Investigators theorize he might know more about Kosaku’s disappearance than he’s letting on, but an anonymous tip directs their attention elsewhere and Hayato is left alone. Missing posters are put up all over town, but after a few years, the case goes cold and the posters all fade or are covered up by other papers. Kawajiri Shinobu eventually remarries, and Hayato gets a hefty scholarship through the Speedwagon Foundation. He goes on to pursue a career as a filmmaker and photographer. Just like Kira Yoshikage, Kawajiri Kosaku fades into mere memory.
Also on July 16th, a young man named Higashikata Josuke is rushed to the hospital with severe burns and several large lacerations. Authorities theorize that he was caught in the gas explosion as well, and his nephew and friends (the only other witnesses on the scene) corroborate this story. Doctors from the Speedwagon Foundation quickly take over his care with little explanation given, and the young Higashikata is put on track to a speedy recovery. His mother and his friends visit almost every single day, but one boy by the name of Nijimura Okuyasu gets in trouble several times for staying past visiting hours or even sneaking in to spend the night. Still, he’s slippery and surprisingly clever, so eventually, it becomes another part of the nurses’ routine to find the boys crammed into Higashikata’s too-small bed, talking animatedly or studying together or sleeping - always touching, and always more relaxed together than apart.
Overall, things are looking better in Morioh. The missing persons rate goes down to almost zero over the next few months, and the 1999 tourist season is going incredibly well. Near the start of August, a small crowd gathers near the Owson Convenience Store. They’re given a few odd looks by passers-by, but no one dares disturb them or eavesdrop. Every time someone tries, they’re glared at by the semi-famous visiting marine biologist or the red-haired man standing incredibly close at his side. After a little while, the crowd disperses, each one looking a bit bittersweet.
Kishibe Rohan starts visiting Kunimitōge Cemetery at least once a week, lighting incense and praying at the foot of Sugimoto Reimi’s grave, but he never explains his connection to the girl murdered in 1983. The next installment of his comic starts a plot about a young girl helping the main protagonist solve a murder mystery.
Kakyoin Noriaki’s twenty-eighth birthday is spent in Morioh. It’s held at the Nijimura house because it’s large and private, and after a lot of hard work, it cleans up pretty nicely. Almost everyone who’d come to say goodbye to Sugimoto Reimi is there, as well as Kakyoin Ryoko and her girlfriend, Yuna. By now, Yuna has learned about the world of Stands, and while she still can’t see any of them, she tries her best to understand everything that’s actually been happening in the past few months. On the rare occasion Ryoko steps away from Yuna, Daughter of Eve appears to keep their hands on Yuna’s arm. At this point, she’s so used to it that it doesn’t startle her anymore, even if she can only blindly pat Eve in return.
After an hour or so of socializing with all his guests, Noriaki retreats to the kitchen to take a quick breather and get some more sparkling cider. (Non-alcoholic, though surprisingly, that’s a personal preference and not a side-effect of his 1989 injury.) He hears heavy footsteps following him and smiles as he turns and sees his boyfriend, Jotaro.
“Hey,” he says softly. There’s no need to keep his voice down, considering the noise coming from the other room, but it still feels necessary to keep up the facade of a quiet, stolen moment.
“Hey,” Jotaro says back, matching Noriaki’s hushed tone. He casually takes Noriaki’s hand and gives it a light squeeze. His frequent need for physical affection is quickly becoming a normal part of their relationship, and Noriaki doesn’t think anything of it as he squeezes back. “You alright?”
“Yes. I just wanted to take a quick break. I’m... not really used to so many people wishing me ‘happy birthday’ and giving me presents.”
“Well, you helped a lot of people. Of course they want to show their gratitude.”
“Actually, I think Rohan’s only here because he wants to flirt with you.”
“He doesn’t flirt with me.”
Noriaki raises an eyebrow. Jotaro grimaces and adds, “As much, anymore.”
Noriaki sighs, but there’s a small smile tugging at his lips. Jotaro laughs quietly. For his part, he’s still trying to get used to Noriaki’s jealousy. Thankfully, it’s more entertaining than it is restricting, and he knows it comes from a general dislike for Rohan more than distrust in Jotaro.
A moment passes, and Jotaro lightly squeezes Noriaki’s hand again to get his attention. “Are you too tired to meet two more guests?” he asks with a mischievous glint in his eyes that isn’t usually there.
Immediately, Noriaki is suspicious. “Depends on who they are,” he says slowly. “Do you have something you want to tell me, JoJo?”
“Not really,” Jotaro says with a too-casual shrug. “Just that maybe you shouldn’t call me ‘JoJo’ for a little while. It might get confusing.”
“Why—?”
But before Noriaki can finish his question, there’s a scream of “Daddy!” from the doorway, and Jotaro lets go of Noriaki’s hand to quickly catch the streak of black and green and pink barrelling towards him.
“Hi, baby,” he says with a warm grin. He tousles her hair, and she giggles and bats at his hands.
“Be careful! Granny put butterflies in my hair!” she warns him, and sure enough, there’s two pink butterfly clips in either one of her small, black buns. Identical butterflies dot her black and green-accented shirt, as well as her black boots. Noriaki will definitely have to compliment whoever picked out her outfit because they did an excellent job. She looks like she should be on the cover of a magazine advertising butterfly-themed childrens’ clothing.
Jotaro scoops her up instead and kisses either one of her round cheeks. She giggles and hugs him tightly as soon as he leans back. “I missed you,” she says, sounding a bit less happy now. “Did you really have to be gone for so long?”
Jotaro’s eyes darken, but he tries to keep his tone light when he says, “Yes, but I’m not going on another trip for a while, so you can tell me everything I missed and help me decorate my new apartment. We still have to paint your bedroom walls, remember?”
Jolyne doesn’t pull away, but she nods her head against his shoulder. “Okay,” she says quietly. “Whatever color I want.”
“Whatever color you want,” Jotaro agrees. He gently rubs her back, and it’s almost comical how small she is in comparison to him. Most people are smaller than Kujo Jotaro, of course, but Jolyne is on the smaller side even when compared to her peers, so Jotaro’s hand covers almost her entire back.
Jotaro catches Noriaki’s eye, and his lips curl up into a small smile. Ducking his head, he murmurs, “Hey, JoJo. Do you want to meet my friend? The one Uncle Polnareff told you about?”
Jolyne slowly pulls back. “The one who looks like Ariel?” she asks, and Noriaki can hear the building excitement in her voice.
Jotaro smiles a little wider. “Yeah. It’s his birthday today. That’s why we’re here. Do you want to say ‘hi’ and tell him ‘happy birthday’?”
Jolyne nods, and Jotaro looks over her head at Noriaki. “Alright. He’s right here.”
Jolyne looks over her shoulder, finally noticing Noriaki’s presence. Immediately, her eyes widen and her mouth drops open. Noriaki smiles warmly and raises a hand to wave to her. “Hello, Miss Jolyne,” he says. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“What happened to your eyes?” Jolyne asks. “Ariel doesn’t have scars on her eyes like you.”
“Jolyne,” Jotaro admonishes, his voice hardening a little bit. “That’s rude.”
“Sorry,” Jolyne says, not sounding very sorry at all. She grins. “But you look even cooler than Ariel!”
Noriaki laughs. “Why, thank you. I like your butterflies. Are they your favorite animal?”
“Butterflies aren’t animals - they’re insects. But yeah! Butterflies are really cool. Granny Holly made this for me for my birthday!”
“It looks very nice.”
“Speaking of Granny Holly, is she here?” Jotaro asks.
“She wanted to talk to Grunkle Josuke,” Jolyne says.
Jotaro and Noriaki shoot each other glances, but honestly, Noriaki isn’t that worried. Holly is a wonderful woman and definitely not the type to hold Josuke accountable for their father’s actions. If anything, she’s probably just excited to meet her half-brother for the first time and ask him how his recovery is going- assuming, of course, that Jotaro told her anything about what happened in Morioh.
Still, it’ll be nice to see Holly again. “Shall we go find her?” Noriaki asks, his eyes mostly trained on Jolyne.
Father and daughter both nod, so Noriaki leads them back out into the living room. It’s still very bare-bones, but someone has procured a large, L-shaped couch, a coffee table, and a few miscellaneous folding chairs and a card table to fill up the space. It doesn’t take Noriaki long to spot Holly sitting next to Josuke in one of the folding chairs off to the side, and while Josuke still looks a bit tense, Holly is smiling widely and gesturing with her hands as she talks. Noriaki almost turns to leave her to it when she suddenly spots him and immediately hurries over. When she opens her arms for a hug, he doesn’t hesitate to reciprocate.
“Oh my goodness, Kakyoin, hi!” she says. “It’s been years! Happy birthday, dear!”
“Thank you, Miss Holly,” he says. “It’s nice to see you again too. How have you been?”
“Oh, fine like usual! I should be asking you how you are! Last I talked to you, you were still in that certification program! What was it for again?”
“IT services. It went well, and I ended up getting a bachelor’s degree instead of just an associate’s. I’m working for the Speedwagon Foundation now, as an agent. That’s why I was here in Morioh with Jotaro.”
“That’s great news! No one can keep my JoJo out of trouble like you.”
Holly winks knowingly, and Noriaki laughs a bit awkwardly. He and Jotaro haven’t been trying very hard to keep their relationship a secret, but he doesn’t know if Jotaro has actually told any of his family members. At the very least, Josuke and his friends already seem to know, judging by their knowing looks and the short exchange of money Noriaki spotted one day during a group lunch, and Noriaki gets defensive of Jotaro enough that Rohan has probably noticed by now that they were dating and chosen to ignore that fact anyways.
Regardless, when he and Jotaro had been discussing the future of their relationship, they’d agreed that Jotaro retained the right to tell his family about the two of them, and he didn’t want to say anything until after Kira had been dealt with. It’s been almost a month since the day Kira met his anticlimactic end, but Noriaki and Jotaro have been so busy tying up the rest of Morioh’s loose ends that Noriaki isn’t sure if Jotaro has had the time to bring anything up to his family.
“Have you eaten anything yet?” Noriaki asks. He looks at Jolyne. “If your dad says it’s okay, you can have some cake.”
Jolyne narrows her eyes a bit suspiciously, and Noriaki is reminded of Jotaro’s own pickiness. “What kind is it?”
“Vanilla with a bit of cherry filling in the middle.”
Jolyne mulls this information over with a very serious expression. Eventually, though, her sweet tooth must win out because she looks up at Jotaro and asks, “Can I have some, Dad?”
“Did you already have lunch?”
“Yeah! Granny made us sandwiches to eat in the car.”
“Alright. I’ll bring you some.”
Noriaki expected Jotaro to pass Jolyne to Holly while he got the cake, but instead, he looks up at Noriaki. Without even saying anything, Noriaki can tell he’s asking if Noriaki is okay with this. He nods minutely, and suddenly, there’s a young child in Noriaki’s arms. Jolyne seems a bit confused by this change of hands at first, but she settles quickly.
“Here,” Jotaro says. “Stay with Noriaki and Granny for a minute, okay?”
She nods, and Jotaro leaves. Noriaki tries not to feel nervous or awkward as he thinks up an icebreaker. “So, Jolyne,” he says. “You said butterflies were your favorite insect, but do you have a favorite animal?”
That does the trick. Unlike her dad, Jolyne is a much easier conversation partner, and her enthusiasm about lions seems to know no bounds. She’s more than happy to tell Noriaki all about how female lions do a lot of the work and male lions are “kinda lazy” and “mostly just there for show”. Noriaki laughs and knows that Jolyne is already growing up to be quite the independent little girl.
Jotaro purposefully takes his time in the other room, but by the time he meanders back in, Jolyne is chattering away comfortably, not seeming to mind that a near-stranger is holding her instead of her grandma or dad. Noriaki glances over and sees the happiness in Jotaro’s eyes, and he knows that the smile he sends back is probably incriminating. Still, he can’t quite bring himself to care. This has been almost a decade in the making, after all. Something tells him Holly won’t be all that surprised anyways.
The rest of the birthday party goes well. Noriaki spends some time catching up with Holly and getting to know Jolyne, does one last round to check on some of his other guests, and talks to Ryoko and Yuna some more.
Eventually, though, Yuna glances at her watch and whispers something in Ryoko’s ear. Ryoko nods and says, “Sorry, but we’ve got to get going. I’ve got a test to study for.”
Noriaki nods. “No need to apologize. You’ve been here for a few hours now anyways. I hope you at least enjoyed yourself.”
“I did. Thanks for inviting us, and happy twenty-eighth, Nori.” She pulls him into a quick hug. “Don’t be a stranger, okay? Where are you off to next, anyways? Italy?”
Noriaki shakes his head as he pulls back. “So far, it seems like Avdol and Polnareff have it handled. I’m going to take a bit of a vacation, actually. See, I’m... I’m planning on moving away.”
Ryoko blinks. “Wait, really? Where are you moving? Osaka? Kyoto? Okinawa?”
“Florida, actually.”
“...Florida, as in—”
“As in the United States, yes.”
“Why?”
“A few reasons,” Noriaki says. “I’ll be honest, I never really liked living in Tokyo, but that’s where the Foundation’s headquarters are, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to live in another country. But for a few years now the Foundation has been asking if I would start a research team for them, and the best place to do that would be in America, closer to the Foundation’s main headquarters.”
“I thought the main HQ was in New York, though. Why are you going to Florida?” She pauses, and her eyes widen a bit in understanding. “That’s where Kujo lives. Isn’t it.”
Noriaki forces a small chuckle. “Yes. I’d be living in the same town as him, since it’s the closest to the headquarters in Florida.”
Ryoko’s jaw tightens. “Yuna, darling, could you give me and my idiotic cousin a moment?”
Yuna is all too happy to excuse herself and rush off to find someone else to talk to. Noriaki tries not to sigh as Ryoko scowls and says, “Nori. You can’t keep following him around. He’s not worth your time! In fact—”
“We’re dating, Ryoko,” Noriaki interrupts. “And before you ask, no, he didn’t ask me to do this. I’ve been considering moving to America for my job for a while now. This was just the catalyst for it.”
He tries not to get defensive on Jotaro’s behalf when he sees the glower on Ryoko’s face. “I know you don’t like him,” he says, quieter. “I’m not asking you to like him either. You’re entitled to your opinion. But at the same time, so am I. So if I’ve decided to date him, that’s frankly none of your business. I love you dearly, Ryoko, but I’m not letting you change my mind on this. Not without a really good reason.”
“How about the fact that he’s been a dick to you for the past ten years,” Ryoko spits. “How convenient that he’s only returning your feelings now.”
“It’s not my place to tell you everything that Jotaro told me while we were discussing our past, but I will say this: both of us had our reasons for not saying anything sooner. It is both of our faults that this never happened sooner, not just Jotaro’s. Like I said, Ryoko, I’m not expecting you to suddenly be best friends with him, but I do expect that you trust I know what I’m doing. And, ideally, I’d like for you to give him a chance.”
A tense silence passes between them. Eventually, though, Ryoko mutters, “I’m not making any promises. But you’d better still call me as often as you did before. More often, actually, because it sounds like you’re not going to be travelling as much. And you’d better come home for the holidays.”
Noriaki smiles. “I will,” he says. “And if you have to come beat me up in person for forgetting, I’ll even reimburse your travel expenses.”
Ryoko finally offers up a small smile and pulls him into another hug. “I’m gonna miss you,” she admits in a very small voice.
He hugs her as tight as he can without hurting her. “I know,” he whispers. “I’ll miss you too, but I think this’ll make me very, very happy.”
“If it doesn’t, I’m killing your boyfriend.”
Noriaki laughs quietly. “Oh, I’m sure you’ll find a way to get your pound of flesh. Though you might have to wait in line. Jotaro’s uncle and his friends have already sworn to do something similar if Jotaro treats me poorly.”
“Smart kids.”
They let go after another moment, and Noriaki says goodbye to Ryoko and Yuna not long after. People are leaving in earnest now, and Noriaki hovers near the door so everyone can give him their last birthday wishes on their way out. Soon, it’s only him, Jotaro, Holly, and Jolyne left in the house. Well, as well as Okuyasu, Josuke, Koichi, and Yukako. Apparently they’re having a movie night/sleepover tonight as soon as everyone clears out, so after gathering his gifts and saying goodbye to the teenagers, Noriaki heads out, boyfriend and boyfriend’s family in tow.
Holly’s car is waiting out front, and Jotaro hugs Jolyne goodbye while Noriaki loads Jotaro’s car with the presents and Holly gets the car seat ready for Jolyne.
“I’ll be back home by next week,” Jotaro says. “I promise.”
“Do you pinkie-promise?” she asks seriously, holding up said finger.
Jotaro nods and, with equal seriousness, hooks his much larger pinkie around hers. “I pinkie-promise.”
Jolyne smiles and hugs him again. “I love you, Daddy,” she says, almost too quiet for Noriaki to overhear. He doesn’t hear Jotaro’s response, but he doesn’t need to. Jotaro’s love for his daughter has been obvious from the moment he found out that he was going to be a father.
After saying their last goodbyes for the day, Jotaro drives them back to the Morioh Grand Hotel. It’s their last night there. Tomorrow, they’re going back to Noriaki’s apartment and spending the next few days packing his things and getting them on a private jet (provided by who else but Joseph Joestar, who was ecstatic about Noriaki moving closer after having to be told several times in increasingly loud tones). Noriaki’s apartment, scouted with Jotaro and his ex-wife’s help, is already prepared for his arrival. With any luck, he’ll be moved in by this time next week.
That night, when Jotaro turns off the light and tugs Noriaki close, Noriaki feels a kind of contentment that he hasn’t felt in a long, long time. He closes his eyes and breathes, “I love you, Jotaro.”
Jotaro presses a sleepy kiss to the crown of Noriaki’s head. “I love you too.”