Chapter Text
VOL #001: MOONAGE DAYDREAM
CHAPTER #001: INNER CITY BLUES
We get wide shots of Tokyo in the afternoon, it’s bustling, bright, and technologically advanced. We then see a shot of a first floor apartment, it’s mostly clean, except for the room where Joquin Joestar is sleeping. The alarm sitting on the table next to his bed hits 11:45 am and goes off.
BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP
“Augh…I thougiwasmahweoff…”
Joquin mumbled as he reached out from under the covers and turned off his alarm. After that he got up out of bed, combed his hair, brushed his teeth, and changed into one of his favorite outfits, completing it by putting on a pair of gold goggles. After that he goes to look into the fridge to get lunch and sees something truly horrifying. Nothing.
“Fuck, I didn’t buy food…I don’t think I’m getting paid this week either…how much was in my account…”
Joquin thought aloud to himself as he pulled out his phone to check his account balance.
“Lessee…SIX THOUSAND YEN!?* Man..I can barely even afford enough for three days with that money…well…I might as well go out to get something”
(*6,000 yen is about 61$ CAD or 44$ USD)
Joquin puts on his boots and walks out the door of his apartment, the area around it is dirty, covered in graffiti, posters, and neon signs were littered everywhere illuminating the area. There weren’t a lot of people but the ones that were around had an air of suspicion and danger around them. Feeling as if they could pull out a knife or gun at any time. As Joquin walked the streets he reached into his pocket and once again pulled out his phone, it was one of those foldable smartphones like something Samsung would make, the most striking difference between it and other brands though was the large silver M on the back, the top points of the M were curved like that of a jester’s hat. Joquin scrolled through his phone until he found the app he was looking for, Spotify. He scrolled through his playlists until he found his favourite playlist, he then plugged in his earbuds and hit shuffle. Hey Ya by Outkast was the first song to play, one of Joquin’s favourites. As he walked down the streets it was clear, he was absorbed entirely in the music. Moving further down the street, passing an alleyway where a man can be seen laying on the ground, he was knocked out, assumedly from a mugging. Joquin didn’t care though, he saw it and quickly looked away, it’s not his business nor is it his problem. After about ten minutes and several songs Joquin arrived at his first destination, a vending machine.
“Okay, hopefully this won’t make any noise”
Joquin reached out his arm and touched the vending machine. Suddenly the glass on the front flew away from him with a loud shatter. Joquin looked nervously around to make sure nobody was around before grabbing anything. Turns out, there was a man right across the street watching him, and he was walking over to Joquin.
“Fuck why did it need to make that noise this never happened before, okayokayokayokay, I can handle this.”
Joquin thought to himself as the man reached him. He looked to be in his late 30s to early 40s. His head was completely bald, probably shaved. He wore a plain white t-shirt with black blotches that looked like oil stains. His jeans also had the same stains, they were grey though so it didn’t make that much of an impact. His outfit was complete with fingerless gloves that exposed his robotic hands. They seemed to be an older model, probably from 2013 or 2012, back when technology wasn’t as advanced as it was now.
“Hey pal, what do you think you’re doing to that vending machine?”
“I uh…I didn’t do anything sir, it was broken when I got here.”
“Yea sure that’s why I saw you break it and reach in to take things, y’know you kids aren’t as cool as you think, back when I was younger we respected property-”
The bald man went on for a while as Joquin stared blankly with an emotionless expression
“God, will this guy ever shut up…”
Joquin thought to himself as the man kept rambling, suddenly he got an idea.
“Okay baldie, you got me, I broke it. BUT, I’ll tip you in on something. I work for Matrix, specifically that one big store here in Shinjuku. I've even been to the HQ in Chiyoda a few times. I can pay you a lot if you get off my ass.”
“Pft, that’s funny kid, you don’t look like you have even a cent to your name, that arm of yours looks as old as the company itself. I’m just gonna call the cops.”
“Oh well, I guess I’m gonna need to deal with this the hard way…”
“You threatening me?”
“I wouldn’t say that, it’s more like…saving my ass I guess”
Before Joquin could even do anything the man lunged at him, Joquin could see sharp brass knuckle-like modifications on the man's hands.
“Fuck, I really should’ve just kept my mouth shut, well at least I have ways of stopping him..”
Joquin dodged his punches and kicked him right in the shins. For a split second a second leg seemed to appear over his during the collision. The man suddenly stopped his attack.
“WH-WHAT THE FUCK!? I CAN’T MOVE!!! WHAT’D YOU DO TO ME????”
The man was getting more panicked as Joquin just casually grabbed a bag of chips from the broken vending machine and strolled back over to him.
“Well, I’m just a really good fighter I guess, by the way can I borrow some cash? I don’t have enough for the train to Shibuya.”
The man was too stunned to reply as Joquin reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, he grabbed about 5,000 yen* out of the man's wallet and tossed it onto the ground
(*5,000 yen is about 51$ CAD or 31$ USD)
“Thanks man. By the way, this arm, it’s only from last year. And it looks better than your hands. They look so damaged I’d think Video Disco made them.”
Joquin then left the man standing there and headed to the train station, thankfully it wasn’t too far away from the vending machine so he didn’t need to worry about running late. Once he reached the station he noticed it was absolutely PACKED. There were tons of people waiting for the train, even once he got on the train there seemed like there were even more people than there were in the station. Joquin happened to be squished between two people. A girl with black hair covering her face and gothic clothing was fast asleep on his left and on his right there was another girl with a more psychedelic fashion taste. She just stared blankly out the window. Joquin decided to turn around and look out too, marvelling at the futuristic landscape of Tokyo. He lived in Tokyo alone for about two years now but the city never ceases to amaze him. On the ground it’s dingy but on the train he could see all the skyscrapers and signs shining in the sun. Signs for many popular brands were scattered around. The most prevalent of these was Matrix, they did revolutionise the industry after all. After what felt like forever Joquin finally reached his destination, Shibuya. One of the busiest wards in Tokyo. There were many businesses in Shinjuku, where Joquin lived. But in Shibuya there was a special spot that Joquin always made sure to visit at least once a week. The Midnight City Cafe. But this week, this week was different.
“Yea I’m sorry Joquin, I had to close down Midnight City.”
“Wh-hu-bu-WHY AVI!?”
Joquin was met by the cafe closed down and the owner, Avi Chiose outside with a pile of boxes. Avi had a very interesting taste in fashion and aesthetic. His hair was dark blue and he always had his bangs in a sharp point and the rest let down with the ends curling up like a wave. His taste in clothing was better though. He wore a baggy bright blue hoodie with the sleeves ripped indicating they were cut out rather poorly, under that was a black long sleeved shirt with a bubble pattern across the left sleeve. His jeans were all torn up around the knees, you couldn’t exactly tell what caused them to get torn but you would know they didn’t come like that.
“Well Joquin, it’s because of Matrix. Heh, everything’s because of them ain’t it?”
“What’s going on with them to force cafes to shut down?”
“Well, they want to expand. I heard they’re planning on branching out into botanical research, build green houses, all that jazz. And well, they need space. Midnight City just happened to be one of those places I guess.”
“So what’re you going to do now? You don’t have any other sources of income do you?”
“No I don’t, I could try finding a job somewhere, I heard there’s a new cafe nearby that opened up recently, I could try applying there but I doubt the owner would want to hire a rival business man haha”
“What’s its name?”
“I think it was the Streetlight Manifesto or something, it’s pretentious but hey, he gets a lot of business so something’s working.”
“Huh, where is it? I might check it out later.”
“It’s around Yoyogi Park I think, I haven’t been in the area for a while but I wanna say nearby that one ice cream place and the animal hospital, you know that area?”
“Yea I think I’ve been there before. Man, a place near Yoyogi, that explains why he has so many customers, it’s hard to imagine how many he would get actually...”
“Yea I can’t believe it that much either but hey, at least I was in the Shibuya Center Gai, although there are so many stores here I’m surprised people even visited the Midnight City. Heh, guess my food was just that good.”
“Yea your stuff was great, but uh..I gotta catch the bus to Yoyogi, see you Avi. Hope you get back on your feet soon.”
“But we-alright Joquin, see ya.”
“Why is he taking the bus..it’s like a 10 minute walk”
Avi thought to himself as Joquin wandered away, leaving him there amidst a pile of boxes. Joquin wandered to the bus stop and waited for the bus, thinking to himself about Avi’s situation
“Matrix going into botanics? Why would a tech company get into plant shit? I mean, I guess anything’s possible, Nintendo went from toys to love hotels before doing video games. But why plants?”
Before he could continue pondering Matrix and their pursuit in the field of botany the bus appeared in front of him, after getting on and sitting for what felt like a second he was at his stop, not too far from the Manifesto but far enough to make him tired after two minutes of walking. Something Joquin hated more than anything, was needing to use his legs to reach a destination. So as soon as he saw a bench he ran to it like his life depended on it and plopped right down. Yoyogi Park was usually packed during August and the other spring and summer months but today it was oddly quiet, not many tourists were around nor were any of the countless clubs that usually populated the area. Today it was just Joquin sitting on a bench, surrounded by pigeons. Joquin at this moment was eating the bag of chips he stole from the vending machine earlier and continued listening to his playlist (the current track playing was Made of Stone by The Stone Roses) hoping he could drown out the constant cooing and chirping of the birds nearby. Getting more and more annoyed by the noises he hoped tossing some chips to the birds would shut them up but sadly, it made them louder as the flock scattered around fighting for the food. But all of a sudden, they stopped. The pigeons looked around and immediately flew away. Joquin wondering what could’ve caused them to scatter also looked around and noticed up in the trees, was a falcon. It was a light grey with an odd chequered pattern on its chest, had talons at the end of its wings and wore an aviator's cap. It seemed to be…waving to Joquin
“What kinda fucking bird is that!? Does someone own that thing-”
Before Joquin can finish the bird swoops in and attacks, trying to grab the bag in the process. Joquin dodges the bird's attack and makes a run for it. Throwing his food at it hoping it’d either hit the bird or distract it. To his surprise the bird dodged all of the chips with ease
“Is this thing trained or something, how’d it do that?”
Joquin thought to himself before getting an idea, he quickly ran towards the bird and threw more chips up in the air, this time with a second arm phasing through his. The chips froze in midair and the bird seemed stunned by this enough to stop and inspect them in the air. Joquin ran off reaching a road thinking that he won until the bird noticed he was getting away with the bag. With an insane burst of speed the bird flew in and rammed Joquin right in the back, flinging him forward onto the road, where a car that seemingly appeared out of nowhere just barely missed hitting him. After hearing the driver shout profanities Joquin looked up and saw the bird, with the bag. Joquin promptly flipped off the bird to which the falcon responded with a similar gesture before flying away.
“Did the bird just…flip me off?”
Joquin thought aloud to himself before getting back up on his feet. He realised he was outside the park and around the street where the Manifesto would be.
“Oh yea this is the area Avi told me about, that Streetlight Manifesto place should be around here.”
Joquin looked around and let out a sigh
“Man, what the fuck was that. That was probably the most bizarre thing I’ve encountered recently, I hope to god I don’t see that thing’s face again..”
He continued to himself as he walked forward looking at the stores lining the street. Stardust Records, Analog Weekends, Boogie Wonderland, so many stores Joquin never recognized before replaced the old stores both he and Avi knew to be there.
“Huh, guess Avi hasn’t been here in a REALLY long while, I don’t recognize any of these places…”
After a few minutes Joquin finally found the places he was looking for, the Streetlight Manifesto. The store looked like a “modern home” from the 60s with small palm trees around the entrance.
“Gee, he wasn’t lying it is pretentious, could’ve thought this dude just moved in from Funkytown with the way this place looks..well, time to see just how good this place actually is.”
Joquin muttered to himself as he walked into the building, not expecting what was about to happen, not in a million years.
[TO BE CONTINUED IN #002: HARD SUNSHINE]