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When Josuke told his mother the news, she was silent for a bit, sipping at her tea without really looking at him. He swallowed hard, beginning to worry, until she said calmly, "Is he going to be there?"
"No, uh, Jotaro said that Suz -- uh, his wife -- isn't doing well right now, so he'll be staying in New York." He rubbed the back of his head nervously, shifting in his seat at the kitchen table where they were sitting.
"How old is she?"
"I'm not sure, probably in her seventies like Mr. Joestar."
"I meant your sister." Tomoko finally put her cup down and met Josuke's eyes with a small smile. "You said this is for her birthday."
"Oh! Um, I don't know, but she's Jotaro's mom and he's thirty now, so...maybe in her fifties?"
"So much older than my baby boy." Tomoko was still smiling, which was strange, but she shook her head at Josuke's questioning look. "It's still weird to know that you have a half-sister. We...never talked about our families when I was with your father."
And why would you? Josuke thought with an inward flush of embarrassment, but he only said, "Yeah, I guess that makes sense." He knew enough about his mother's affair with Joseph Joestar to understand without being told that it had been brief, passionate, and something Tomoko had never really gotten over. It made him sad that his mother still felt this way, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Tomoko was quiet for a minute more, than sighed and said, "You can go. There's no reason for you not to. You'll be on school vacation and Tokyo isn't that far away."
"Great." Just in case, Josuke leaned forward and took his mother's hand, which made her blink in surprise. He asked earnestly, "Are you sure you're okay with this, Mom? 'Cause if you're not, I can just tell them I can't make it."
But Tomoko was already shaking her head before he finished. "No, I'm all right, Josuke. I want you to meet your sister. She's also Jotaro's mother, after all, and you two seem pretty friendly after his stay in town last summer."
"Yeah." Josuke smiled at his mother, who squeezed his hand before letting it go. "He's bringing Jolyne. I haven't met her yet, either."
"Who's Jolyne? His wife?" Tomoko looked confused.
"Nah, his daughter. I guess I have a great-niece, too," Josuke said with a laugh. "She's like, seven."
"Oh. Well, at least you'll have someone close to your own age there," Tomoko teased, causing Josuke to roll his eyes.
"Mom. I'm seventeen now, you know -- "
"I know." Tomoko got up and came around the table to kiss her son on the forehead. "You go and be a good brother and a good uncle, and don't worry about a thing. I'm sure it'll be fine."
* * * * *
Josuke had never gone alone to Tokyo, but Holly had said she was picking him up at the station, along with Jotaro and his daughter. At least he wouldn't have to wander around looking for a bus out to the suburbs. With his headphones pumping Prince's latest album into his ears, he stared idly out the window as the train passed through farmland and small towns like Morioh one after the other, making its swift way towards the city.
If Josuke was going to be honest with himself, he was a little nervous about meeting his sister in person. He'd spoken to her on the phone a few times already -- she was always cheerful, laughing and talking in fluent but heavily accented Japanese. Sometimes he had a hard time believing that this was the mother of the stoic marine biologist with the scarily powerful Stand. What if she was less friendly once he was actually standing in her house, living proof of her father's illicit affair? He supposed he would know for certain once he spent some actual time around his paternal relatives.
Josuke had long ago accepted his status as the son of an unmarried, single mother, which had gotten him grief from schoolyard bullies until he'd proven he could hold his own. Still, part of him was curious and excited to find out more about his father's family, and to meet the only other child Joseph Joestar had brought into the world -- at least as far as anyone knew. So, as the train pulled into the station at last, he tried not to worry and to instead, look forward to meeting Holly and once again seeing his nephew, whom he admired and respected a lot, even if Jotaro was intimidating at times.
As soon as he was away from the crowd of fellow passengers disembarking the train, Josuke heard a voice calling his name. Before he could even turn around to look, someone launched themselves at him with a delighted squeal, hugging him so tightly that for a moment, he couldn't breathe. In the background, he could also hear a child asking in English, "Daddy, is that him?" and Jotaro's rumbling voice answering her. The person clutching him so tightly finally drew back, and as he wheezed, he saw that it was a middle-aged, blond woman with blue eyes, paler than his own, and a friendly smile. So this was Holly.
"Little brother!" she said happily. "I'm so glad to see you at last!"
"Um, me too. I mean, hello." Josuke smiled back, nervous and a bit embarrassed, but secretly touched at her affectionate greeting. Holly seemed not to have lost her American effusiveness despite living for decades in Japan. Or maybe that's just how she was, because after Josuke greeted Jotaro and Jolyne (the latter peered at him suspiciously from behind Jotaro's coat before saying "hello" in a small voice), she linked her arm with his and led him away towards the car left at the curb outside. She chatted away the whole time, and he did his best to listen and answer when appropriate, but the noise and bustle around him were distracting. It was a relief to get into the car and shut out most of the cacophony.
"Mom," Jotaro said patiently as he pulled the car into traffic, "give Josuke a break. He's just gotten here, there'll be time to harrass him about whether or not he's got a girlfriend once we're back at the house."
"Oh! Of course, Jotaro, you're right. " Holly smiled brightly at Josuke. "Jotaro's father just returned exhausted from his tour, so he's asleep at home right now, but he'll be awake later to say hello as well. You'll like him, he and Jotaro are a lot alike."
Josuke's gaze went to his hulking nephew, who was driving in silence, his face expressionless and his demeamor as forbidding as ever. Josuke swallowed nervously. Holly then asked Jotaro something about the route they were taking and whether it wouldn't be better to go another way, and she and Jotaro started debating traffic patterns in a haphazard mixture of English and Japanese which Josuke couldn't follow. Over his shoulder, he caught a glimpse of Jolyne sitting behind him, and he turned around slightly to smile at her. She narrowed her eyes, then stuck out her tongue. Josuke raised an eyebrow at her, then reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a half-eaten package of candy, which he showed Jolyne over the back of the seat with a winning smile. Her suspicion remained, but she looked interested.
"Be good," he said in careful English, repeating it in Japanese for good measure.
Jolyne's brow wrinkled as she stared at her strange new uncle -- great-uncle, Josuke reminded himself. Then she seemed to give in, nodding and holding out a hand expectantly. He laughed softly and handed her a piece. She took it, unwrapped it carefully, then put it in her mouth, her face changing from suspicious to surprised when she found that the weird melon-flavored candy was actually tasty.
"Can I have another, Uncle Josuke?" she asked after a minute or two. She spoke in English, but he caught her meaning easily enough. It also caught the attention of Jotaro, who glowered at him from under his hat.
"She's allergic to peanuts, so there better not be any in there," he warned, and Josuke shook his head rapidly, holding up the package. Once Jotaro's attention was back on the road, the teenager looked over his shoulder again and winked, passing Jolyne another piece.
Holly, who had been watching all this with a smile, giggled happily. "You remind me of Dad. He used to sneak candy into the movie theater whenever we went. He'd buy it beforehand at the five and dime and hide it inside his jacket."
"Why?" Jotaro's voice was disbelieving. "It's not as if he couldn't afford to buy it inside."
"He just did. He said it was the principle of the thing."
"Mr. Joestar told me candy is really expensive in American movie theaters, so I get it," Josuke said. He glanced at Jolyne again. She had yet to chew and swallow all her candy, and her cheeks were packed out like a squirrel's. He started laughing.
Jotaro caught sight of his overstuffed daughter, his beaming mother, and his snickering uncle, and sighed with feeling. "Right."
* * * * *
The Kujo home, as it turned out, was large and spacious and, as Holly said, had been in the family for a long time. "There were some additions made to the original, but this is the way it's been since before the war," she told him as they made their way inside.
Josuke was impressed. He wasn't one for architecture nor history, but the house was beautiful and serene with its classical layout and the water garden in the courtyard. Holly gave him a room near Jotaro's old room, which the marine biologist still slept in whenever he came for a visit. After showing him where everything was, she was finally coaxed away by Jotaro, who felt some sympathy for his young uncle's ear having been talked off all afternoon, and so Josuke was left to unpack his bag and get settled while the others busied themselves elsewhere.
He called his mother to let her know he'd arrived safely, assuring Tomoko that he would "be good" and not overly trouble the Kujos with his loud, teenage self. Then he poked around the room, but there was nothing to be found but a few old magazines. Soon enough, though, Josuke was aware of being watched, and he looked up from the GQ Japan he'd found in a drawer to see two curious green eyes peering around the door at him.
He grinned at Jolyne, who sidled into the room with somewhat less suspicion than she'd displayed toward him earlier. "Whatcha doin'?" she said.
After a moment's thought, Josuke replied, "Reading."
Clearly Jolyne didn't know much Japanese, so it was fortunate that she was only seven, because Josuke doubted his vocabulary was up to a fluent English conversation with an adult, at this point. Maybe he should study harder so that one day, he could talk to his sister -- and their father, for that matter -- in their native language. He was glad Holly spoke Japanese well; the mixture of that and English he'd used with Mr. Joestar had been awkward much of the time.
Jolyne looked around the sparsely furnished guest room. "Is this where Grandma said you're sleeping?"
"Yes." He paused, then managed, "Where do you sleep?"
"In Daddy's room. But he snores!" Jolyne said with disgust. Jotaro's brow wrinkled as he tried to recall if he knew that word.
"What's 'snores'?" he finally asked, feeling a little silly, but Jolyne, now completely at ease, threw herself on all fours onto the end of the futon and adopted a fake sleeping posture, tucking her folded hands under her face.
"Like this -- " and she made a loud, snorting noise that Josuke recognized immediately. He started laughing, picturing the stolid man's rumbling breaths echoing through the night, in stark contrast to his quiet reserve when he was awake.
"Hee hee hee," Jolyne giggled along with him. Then she sat up, cocking her head and regarding him with interest. "Um, why is your hair like that, Uncle Josuke?"
At her innocent quesiton, Josuke automatically tensed, then took a deep breath to calm himself. Holly hadn't said anything about his hair, having already seen his photo and, no doubt, been warned by Jotaro against mentioning it, but Jolyne was only a little kid. She merely appeared curious, so he answered slowly, "Because I like it like this."
"Oh. That's cool." Jolyne sat down tailor-style, facing him, while Josuke relaxed, breathing an inward sigh of relief. "Kids in school make fun of my hair sometimes, but I just tell them to shut up 'cause it's my hair." She shook her head, swishing the braid that hung down in back and making her tiny odangos bob.
Josuke nodded. "Good. Don't let them laugh at you." He sat up and crossed his legs as well. They were almost nose to nose, although he towered over her.
"I won't." Jolyne peered up intently at him. "Do people make fun of you too?"
"Sometimes, but I...just tell them to shut up," Josuke replied, unsure that it'd be a good idea to let Jolyne know how many fights he'd gotten into when someone insulted his hairstyle. He had a feeling Jotaro wouldn't approve.
"I like you," the little girl said, lifting her chin with a sense of finality, as if that was all there was to it.
Josuke grinned. "I like you, too."
* * * * *
"She's already been in three fistfights since starting second grade," Jotaro said wearily, pulling a stack of bowls out of a cupboard. Josuke muffled a laugh, for which he received a withering look from the other man.
"Yeah, well, look who she has for a dad," the teenager said, counting out spoons and pairs of chopsticks. Jotaro had insisted on making dinner since it was Holly's birthday, and only the excuse of taking Jolyne out to pick up the cake had dislodged the tenaciously helpful woman from the kitchen.
"Jolyne gets no encouragement from me to fight in school," Jotaro said flatly, putting the bowls down with a little more force than was perhaps necessary.
"Don't listen to him! He was a little punk," Sadao called out suddenly from another room. "Maybe 'little' isn't the right word. He got into it with the neighbor's kid when he was fourteen, although by then he was taller than Holly. Then he got into a fight every week until after that trip he took to Egypt with his grandfather."
Josuke grinned at Jotaro's expression, a mixture of beleagured patience and embarrassment. "Is that so? And here I thought you were supposed to be a good example for me, your uncle, not to mention your daughter -- "
"He threw my old agent across the room when he made a pass at Holly," Sadao added, coming to the doorway, a sheet of handwritten music in hand. "Not that I wouldn't have done the same thing if I'd been there."
"Dad." Jotaro gave his father a pleading look, and the older man chuckled, coming into the room and laying a hand on Jotaro's shoulder.
"All right, son, I'll stop telling Josuke about what a rotten teenager you were and get back to working on this arrangement." Sadao sauntered out, and Josuke resumed what he was doing, grinning to himself.
Even in midlife, Jotaro's dad was strikingly handsome, and it was easy to see how Holly had been swept off her feet by him when they were younger. He wasn't as tall and broad as Jotaro -- who'd taken after his mother's side of the family in that respect -- but he had a commanding presence and a good deal of charm to match. Josuke wasn't familiar with the jazz music Sadao was known for, but apparently his sister's husband was quite respected and famous. He'd toured incessantly in years past, but had slowed down now that he and Holly were getting older. The tour he'd just returned from was to be his last for some time. He had greeted Josuke with real friendliness and none of the stoic reserve his son exhibited, which made Josuke feel much more at ease.
"He's right, you know. I was pretty awful when I was your age," Jotaro muttered, wiping down the counter.
"Yeah? Did you really fight a lot?"
"That, and I smoked, drank, skipped class, ran around with other punks, and was a rude little shit to Mom, not to mention putting myself in jail before I understood what my Stand was," the other man replied in a low voice, aware that Sadao could still hear them. Josuke glanced over his shoulder at the doorway, but his brother-in-law was apparently too occupied now to pay attention to their conversation.
"Yeah, Mr. Joestar told me about the jail thing. Me, I just got sick. That was way less cool." Josuke said, a bit regretfully.
Jotaro shot him an amazed look. "You were four. What else was going to happen? Besides, Mom got sick too, right around that time."
"Holly has a Stand?!" Josuke almost screeched, then covered his mouth with both hands. Both of them looked at the doorway, but all they could hear was the sound of Sadao's piano in the other room down the hall.
Jotaro relaxed, shaking his head. "Yeah, she does. Or rather, she did. You know that's why we went to Egypt in the first place."
"Right, I knew that, but...I guess I never thought about all of that happening at the same time I was so sick. I barely remember that, except for, you know -- " he pointed at his own pompadoured head, " -- that guy."
Jotaro nodded, but before he could answer, Holly's cheerful voice rang out from the front door of the house. "We're back! With a cake that looks lovely, too, thanks to Jotaro!"
"Good, because I'm actually hungry and this looks done," Jotaro commented, lifting the lid on a pot on the stove to look inside with a critical eye.
Holly came into the kitchen with a box from the bakery, Jolyne at her heels. "Oh, it smells delicious, Jotaro! Jolyne dear, why don't you go wash your hands?" The child obediently ran off and Jotaro muttered something archly about his daughter "never defying Grandma," which made both Josuke and Holly laugh.
Josuke picked up the tray with the dishes and utensils on it and carried it into the dining room, smiling to himself. He was...happy, he realized. He liked Holly, he liked his other relatives, and if his mother and Okuyasu were with them, it'd be damn near perfect. Maybe someday that could happen. Holly didn't seem at all resentful of Josuke's mother and had even asked him how Tomoko was doing, and that gave Josuke some hope for the future. He set the tray down and was about to go back to the kitchen to help Jotaro some more when he nearly tripped over Jolyne, who had come in silently and was standing behind him.
"Whoa -- look out!" he said in Japanese, before remembering and switching to English. Jolyne stared up at him with big eyes.
"We're going to have cake for Grandma's birthday!" she told him. "Japanese cake, which I like better than cake at home. It has fruit on it!"
"Yeah?" Josuke playfully swept the little girl up in his arms. "Too bad I'm going to eat ALL OF IT!" He carried the protesting Jolyne out of the room.
* * * * *
They ate the dinner Jotaro had made and brought out Holly's cake at the end. Upon seeing it, Jolyne turned to stare at Josuke with accusing eyes while he grinned evilly at her, causing Jotaro to look between the two of them with mistrust. Nothing happened, of course, but after the cake was passed around, Josuke remembered something.
"One sec, I'll be right back!" he said, hurrying to his room to retrieve a small box he'd stashed in his bag before leaving home. When he came back, Jolyne was presenting her grandmother with a homemade birthday card, and amidst all the talk and eating and Jotaro sternly telling Jolyne not to climb over the table again, Josuke had to wait for an appropriate moment to give his sister the birthday gift he'd gotten for her.
Jolyne's antics eventually caused a spill, and as her father led her away to get a towel to clean the mess, Josuke handed his sister the package across the table. "Happy birthday, Holly. Hope you like it."
"Josuke, you're so sweet." Holly appeared thrilled, but with Sadao's good-natured prodding, she finally stopped admiring the fancy gift paper (Tomoko had actually wrapped the box after watching Josuke try and fail twice to make it look decent) and opened it. She gasped, then exclaimed, "Oh! Josuke, it's beautiful. Thank you!" Josuke beamed, pleased that she liked it.
It was a cloisonné scarf pin shaped like a sprig of holly, which delighted his sister because, as Josuke knew, both her American name and her Japanese nickname came from that same plant. "Look, Jotaro," Holly said, showing it to the others when they returned, towel in hand. They admired it dutifully, and after some more gifts were given to a smiling Holly (whose reaction was full of the same delight every time), dinner ended. Josuke helped clear the table, and he and Jotaro went into the kitchen to do the washing up.
"Hey Jotaro, you cooked and everything. Let me do the dishes," Josuke offered, feeling magnanimous after the success of his sister's birthday present. Jotaro appeared surprised, which was somewhat annoying (Josuke wasn't that lazy) but agreed, since he'd had to drive them all to and from the train station and make dinner for five people besides, and he was tired.
"Don't let Mom try to help," he advised wryly as he left the room, "because she will."
The older man went into the living room where Jolyne and her grandfather had settled down to watch TV. Josuke could hear their voices faintly above the sounds of a comedy his own grandfather had sometimes watched. He began washing dishes, looking out the window over the sink at a vine-covered fence, trying to see beyond the glow of the kitchen lights into the darkness outside. Sure enough, Holly came into the room and Josuke tried to shoo her away, but she persisted, so he finally conceded that he didn't know where everything was stored, and allowed her to dry and put things away as he washed and rinsed.
Holly was relating a funny story about Jotaro as a baby and promising pictures later (to which Jotaro would have strenuously objected had he heard), when she miscalculated where the edge of a shelf was and nearly dropped a heavy clay pot onto the tiled floor. In a flash and without thinking, Josuke had Crazy Diamond out to catch it -- but it never hit the ground. Crazy Diamond halted mid-lunge while Josuke stared in amazement at Holly, from whose body several ghostly, vine-like tendrils had emerged to catch the pot midair. He could see red berries and pointed leaves in clusters on the vines.
"You do have a Stand!" he said in awe. "And it's so fast! I thought Crazy D was faster than just about anything except Star Platinum!"
To his surprise, Holly gave a very different sort of smile than her usual one -- a smile that was full of sadness. The vines brought the clay pot gracefully up to her hands, and she took care to slide the item back into its proper place as her Stand disappeared. She shut the cabinet door and turned to face Josuke again, but noticed that Crazy Diamond was still out. "Is that your Stand?" she asked, pointing.
"Yeah. This is Crazy Diamond." He had his Stand bow to Holly before dispersing him, and his sister smiled that same strange way again.
"Mine is Crimson and Clover," she said. "Nobody's seen it for years until just now."
"Wait...what?" Josuke was confused. "I thought Jotaro knew about it, and also Mr. -- um, our father."
"They do, but they thought it went away after they killed Dio," Holly said gently. "It didn't, though. It came back out about a month after they returned from Egypt. I was home alone, and at first I was very frightened. But then I remembered what Dad and Jotaro had said about theirs, and I started trying to get it to do what I wanted. It took a long time; I'm not like you or Jotaro. I don't use it very often, but it's nice to know I can, just in case."
Josuke murmured, "So they don't know." Holly shook her head. "What about Sadao?"
"He doesn't even know about Jotaro's Stand. They only told him I was sick with an 'undiagnosed illness' back when it all started, and even though he came home from his tour to see me, there wasn't anything he could do. He can't see Stands, after all." Holly sighed, looking away from him for a minute, but when she looked back up at him, it was with an earnest expression that went straight to Josuke's heart. She put her hands on his upper arms. "Please, Josuke -- don't mention this to anyone, especially Jotaro. He'll just worry about me. He nearly died in Egypt and lost his friends besides. I don't want him to feel as if that was all in vain."
Josuke nodded. He tried to smile at Holly, who had tears in her eyes. "I get it," he said. "My mom doesn't know about my Stand. There was...well, stuff happened last year when Jotaro was in Morioh, and I got hurt really bad, and my best friend almost died too. We told Mom it was a gas explosion, but it was really Stand stuff. I hate that she doesn't know the real reason why I got hurt and that I can't tell her about any of it, but..." His voice cracked and trailed off, and he furiously blinked the tears out of his own eyes.
"Oh, Josuke," Holly said with compassion, and Josuke found himself being hugged by his older sister again, except that this time, he hugged her back. "It's hard not to be able to tell people you love, I know. And you're so young, the same age as Jotaro was back then! I'm glad you understand, though. I've been keeping Crimson and Clover a secret all this time."
Josuke wondered if he himself would've been able to so completely hide the existence of his Stand. His grandparents had never known and Tomoko didn't know, but they had probably thought Josuke was being an imaginative child, before he'd learned that no one else could see Crazy D. Joseph had told him that Holly's Stand had nearly killed her because of her sweet and gentle nature, but obviously there was more to her than that or she wouldn't have managed to learn to control it on her own, the same way Josuke had learned to use Crazy Diamond. And it wasn't as if Jotaro wasn't a smart guy. Josuke could hardly believe his nephew hadn't figured it out by now.
Suddenly, his affection for his older half-sister increased, and he patted Holly's back reassuringly. "Yeah, I understand. Don't worry, I won't say anything," he promised Holly, and after wiping their faces, they resumed washing and drying the dishes. A few minutes later, Jotaro came into the room.
"Is there any more of that cake left?" he asked. Holly turned around to tease him for his appetite, her bright manner back in full force. Jotaro protested that Jolyne had eaten most of his share, and his mother hustled him out of the room when he admonished her for washing dishes anyway despite her birthday status. He also threw Josuke a dark look as he left.
"Go on, go sit down, already," Josuke told Holly. He managed to get his sister to leave the kitchen while he finished the washing up. Then he cut a very large piece of cake and put it on a plate with a fork, taking it into the living room where the others were sitting around watching TV. Josuke sat down beside Jotaro, handing him the plate. "Here, man. You've earned it."
At the sight of the enormous slice, and Josuke's odd comment, Jotaro raised his eyebrows. The teenager only winked at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Holly's hidden smile.