Chapter Text
Jotaro froze and Okuyasu face-palmed.
“You’re in big trouble…” he murmured, not wanting to catch Josuke’s attention. He knew the consequences of insulting Josuke’s hair pretty well for only knowing him a little while.
“Ugh…” Koichi sighed. “This is just what happened with those bullies the other day!”
“Wait!” Jotaro called, seeming to finally understand the gravity of what he just said. “Hold on, Josuke. I wasn’t insulting you-”
Josuke advanced, but was met with a punch to the face before he could even teach the man a lesson. He staggered back, blood spurting from his lip.
“Trying to punch me is not a good idea, Josuke. I’m stronger than you by tenfold. Natural talent for throwing punches will only get you so far.”
“I’m really proud of this hair…” Josuke spat, wiping off the blood dripping from his lip. Getting in a fight with his nephew definitely went against his plans of Avoid the Joestars at all costs . “I get really pissed off when anyone talks bad about it! I don’t even know why I get so furious. I doubt there’s even a reason. It’s like an instinctive reaction.”
“Good grief…” Jotaro sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “This hothead is actually dangerous.”
Josuke swung again, this time actually hitting him. Jotaro staggered back, though he didn’t bleed. It would definitely bruise, though.
“Ha! You’re wide open now- all the way to your chin.”
He threw a third punch, only to get caught by Jotaro’s fist.
“Assuming I can look past that unstable personality…” Jotaro muttered, slapping Josuke across the face.
“Oi! Stop it!” Okuyasu yelled. “Leave my friend alone!”
“SHUT IT! You’re being fucking annoying!”
Josuke’s eyes narrowed at this. What the fuck gave him the right to insult his hair, followed by his friend?
“Listen, Josuke.” Jotaro turned around to face the teen. “I came to meet you for two reasons. You already heard the first- you’re a Joestar. But the other one is…” Jotaro pulled out a simple polaroid picture from his pocket. “This photograph.”
It was of a young girl who couldn’t be older than seven. She had Jotaro’s dark hair, but it was put into two buns wrapped in dyed-green braids. Her front bangs were green as well. She had big, curious, emerald green eyes.
“Who is that?”
“My daughter, Jolyne Kujo. We are moving to Japan due to my divorce with her mother, and I have some important work to finish up in Africa. Your mother, Tomoko Higashikata, is an elementary school teacher. I need your permission first, but if you can fix that temper of yours, I was wondering if you guys could take her in for a little while, though I am currently questioning that decision…I’d have her stay with my mother, but she is currently taking in your father, his wife, and odd friend.”
“Who’s-”
“Let me finish. You both will be compensated greatly, plus your inheritance if Joseph passes. He tends to be very good at evading death, though, so we’ll see about that. I want to set up a meeting with your mother.”
“Excuse me, what?”
…
So Josuke’s plan had gone to shit, that was for certain. Jotaro Kujo had forced him to ditch school with him, leaving the sixteen year old boy to sheepishly wave goodbye to his friends while he was dragged into a taxi.
At least he’d get out of math class.
“So…” Josuke started after five minutes of awkward silence in the car. “Where exactly are you taking me?”
He wasn’t even sure if his kidnapper would answer.
“To the hotel I’m staying at here. I’m assuming you do not wish to meet with your- Joseph, right now. Correct?”
Surprisingly Jotaro Kujo seemed to take Josuke’s feelings into consideration.
“I’d really rather not…I don’t wanna do any of this, really.”
Jotaro huffeed out a good grief, “Yeah, me too, kid,” before pulling his hat, adorned with pins, as low on his face as he could get.
“So what’s the plan, then?”
“You’re going to, uhm, meet my mother, Holly Kujo. So that would be…your sister. Since you’re technically my uncle.”
“Right…”
Normally Josuke would burst out laughing if anyone else was in this situation, but all he felt was a pit in his stomach. Once the ocean of silence drowned out any chance of conversation, Josuke put on his headphones and connected them to his walkman. He’d brought Michael Jackson’s Thriller with him to school that day, and it was pretty ironic that Billie Jean was the first song to come on.
She’s just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son
He felt like an outsider, even when it was only his uncle he’d met. He didn’t even know why they considered giving him inheritance, he’d basically broken up the family.
Maybe they just felt obligated.
He knew his mom would always be in love with Joseph, the man who stole her heart and ran away with it. She always told Josuke not to blame him.
He did anyway.
He got a woman forty-two years younger than him pregnant.
That was pretty fucking disgusting, if you were to ask Josuke.
…
The hotel Jotaro Kujo was staying at was rather large. It was more like a mansion than anything. Thick brown walls towered three stories high, the building itself being more stretched out than tall. Instead of one of those fancy flat roofs hotels had back in Tokyo, there were multiple small roofs you’d find on your everyday house.
It was like someone added a mansion and a log cabin and multiplied it by ten.
When the taxi pulled to a stop, both Josuke and Jotaro stepped out. Josuke took out his headphones and thanked the driver while Jotaro handed him the money and said nothing.
That man was very hard to figure out.
The lobby of the hotel looked like an old grandma’s living room that no one bothered to clean out. Like something from the fifties or sixties.
The couches were old and dusty, and a hideous green carpet with an equally hideous pattern clashed with the red and brown furniture. It seemed like it was clean, but smelled like old people nonetheless.
Is this really the only nice hotel we have here? Josuke thought to himself. If it was, he’d definitely buy it and remodel it when he was older and super rich.
After looking up at the chandelier on the ceiling (lit with actual candles) he noticed two people sitting on one of the very old couches.
Oh! Josuke was interrupted by a thought, completely forgetting about the people. It’s fucking European, that’s why it looks like shit.
Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to have a snobby victorian-themed hotel in the middle of fucking Morioh?
Fucking idiots, that’s who.
Seriously who the fuck-
His thoughts were interrupted by a clearing of the throat. He looked to his right to find Jotaro looking at him expectantly. “Did you hear anything I just said?”
“Uh, no- Sorry sir, truly, I-”
“ ‘S fine.” The middle aged man then pointed to the two people sitting on the shitty couch. Josuke actually studied them more carefully this time.
The woman, who Josuke assumed to be Holly Kujo, was sitting in a very poised manner, a cup of tea in front of her on the coffee table. She was paler than Josuke, with rosy cheeks and kind eyes. Her graying blonde hair was held in a simple black headband, her bangs still framing the front of her face. She wore pearl earrings with a necklace to match over a blue turtleneck with a simple black dress covering it.
So fashion runs in the family?
Josuke shook his head and erased the thought immediately. He wasn’t a part of this family, not truly. He was an illegitimate child, after all. He had no right to think like he knew anything about them.
But Holly Kujo really did have a nice sense of fashion.
Josuke had no idea who the man next to her was. He was clearly older- he could even be her father- but he had a sense of youth to him that Josuke couldn’t quite grasp. He was very handsome, with slicked back dirty blonde hair that reached just beyond his ears, a perfectly combed mustache and beard, and two pink dots? (Josuke wasn’t really sure exactly what they were) under each eye. The man wore a blue dress shirt which was loosely tucked into hot pink slacks, the first three buttons undone (which was pretty revealing for an older man). Josuke was ninety percent sure that man wasn’t his birth father, but if he was, Josuke would’ve totally understood why his mom fell for him.
And then his face twisted in disgust, realizing he called an old man (who could possibly be his birth father) hot.
Yeah.
Definitely gross.
“Hi,” Holly said with a smile, finally breaking the silence. “I’m pretty sure my Jotaro here told you already, but my name is Holly Kujo and I’m your biological sister.”
Josuke looked at the ground, not able to meet her eyes. “I’m Josuke, but you probably know that already…”
“Wow,” the blonde man chuckled. “He’s not like Jojo at all. Are you really sure this is his kid?”
Josuke’s face heated up with a very embarrassed blush.
Holly seemed to be equally as embarrassed. “Caesar!! You can’t just say that-”
The man stood up, along with Holly, and made his way over to Josuke. “Pardon me for the rude introduction,” he said, holding out his hand. “I’m Caesar Zeppeli, your father’s best friend.”
Somehow this made Josuke despise his father even more. If his old man’s best friend gave enough of a damn to show up, why couldn’t he?
Then again, Josuke very candidly expressed that he didn’t want to see nor meet Joseph…
Fucking hate feelings , the teen cursed at himself. He shook Caesar’s hand. The old man’s grip was firm and seasoned, as if he’d done this millions of times before. Since Josuke lived in Japan, he didn’t really do “handshakes.” Or a lot of physical touch, especially with strangers. It was odd, to say the least.
“You got cool hair, kid.”
With that Josuke’s eyes lit up.
“Really?”
“Yeah, much better than Joseph’s when he was around your age.”
It seemed even if he wasn’t meeting with his father, Josuke couldn’t get out of talking about the old man.
“Thanks…that, uh, means a lot to me.”
Caesar laughed and turned to Holly. “Damn, the kid’s polite, too! I can’t believe he didn’t just offer up the kid to me, I would’ve raised him well, too.”
Holly’s expression turned into a melancholy smile. “I don’t think mamma would’ve appreciated it that much.”
“The kid didn’t do anything! And besides, this is Joseph’s fault, not the kid’s!”
Even though the adults were talking about Josuke like he wasn’t there, the teen didn’t really mind.
He was allowed to like Caesar, right? He felt more like family than Jotaro did, that was for sure. And it felt less awkward- like he had to try and seem related to him. Part of him wished this man was his dad instead.
“Where’s Jolyne?” Jotaro asked, interrupting the conversation.
“Oh- she’s with Polnareff. They’re upstairs in your room, I think. Last I checked she was playing dragon and princess with him. I wonder if he’s still locked in the bathroom…”
Jotaro didn’t say anything else, and walked (very hastily) towards the elevator before stepping off and leaving Josuke with the older folks.
“So, uhm, it was nice meeting you and all but I have school and…”
“Josuke,” Holly said, her lips tugging into a smile that felt safe, “we’re taking care of that. Right now, we have some things to discuss. Then we will meet up with your mother to discuss further details. How does getting some food sound?”
And to be quite frank, Josuke hadn’t had anything to eat yet. He was starving. “Sounds good. By the way…how did you guys find out about me?”
“Your birth father, our father I guess, has fallen a little ill.”
Josuke’s eyes widened. “Oh…”
“It’s nothing bad, just prostate cancer. Thank god we discovered it quickly…” Josuke did, in fact, notice the weird glance exchanged between Holly and Caesar. “So he’ll be fine. He’s going to get it removed in a couple weeks. Since he’s seventy-nine at this point, we decided it would be best to look into the will and family trees and all that…and we found you.”
“Jesus, Holly, don’t just go saying his age like that!”
“Why not?”
“How do you think I feel, knowing I’m older than that senile bastard?”
“Wait-” Josuke was dumbfounded. “You’re older than him? How!?”
Caesar smiled at that. “Your father and I used to be gymnasts, you know. I kept fit and became a personal trainer. That plus my gracious genetics are going to keep me living a while. Your father, however, is a lazy ass and look at what that got him!”
Yeah, Caesar Zeppeli was definitely cooler than his dad.