Josuke couldn't quite remember why Inori had suddenly left that afternoon. Something about going to find someone — but the only people she knew in Morioh were him and Jotaro-san, or at most that Rohan guy. So who had she gone to see?
—Huh? That's strange. I feel like Inori-nee had this really important friend besides us... but I've never actually seen them. I shouldn't overthink it. It's probably a girl thing — if I keep picking at it, she'll get annoyed.
"Onee-san, can you come pick up Jolyne from my place?"
Josuke glanced back, a little helpless, at the small girl who had made herself completely at home on his sofa, chattering away with his mother and flatly refusing to go to sleep.
"She can stay here if that's easier, but Jotaro-san left her in your care — if he comes back and finds her at my house, he might get the wrong idea."
"Alright. I'll be right over."
Inori agreed without hesitation.
Jotaro-san wouldn't care about something this trivial, but looking after little Jolyne was her responsibility. Leaving her dumped on Josuke for the whole evening wasn't her style.
...
...
"Bye, Josuke! Come play with Jolyne again tomorrow!"
Jolyne waved her little hand and called back as they left.
She was buzzing with energy.
Probably the time-zone adjustment — she hadn't quite settled into Japan yet. But honestly, Josuke's gentle nature was simply the kind that small children took to immediately, and Jolyne had latched on hard.
The moon slipped out from behind the clouds, casting a faint blue-green light across the quiet street.
It was only at moments like this — really only at moments like this — that Inori felt something close to peace. Yoshikage Kira was dead. This Morioh had no more threats on the horizon. All that remained was to find the relic bone Kira had brought to this town, and she could leave in good conscience, head west to Italy.
"Sorry about taking off on you, Jolyne. I had something important I had to take care of."
Inori was holding Jolyne's hand as they walked, and took a moment to apologize first.
"It's okay."
Jolyne beamed up at her, not bothered in the least.
—Kids really were simple. She'd been inconsolable when her dad left, and somehow Josuke had turned that around completely. Whatever spell that boy had cast, Inori's carefully prepared arsenal of candy bribes hadn't even gotten a chance to deploy.
—Honestly, at this rate, I might as well just drop her at his house permanently.
"Are you hungry, Jolyne?"
The honest answer was that the hungry one was Inori herself. She'd come to Trattoria Trussardi that afternoon full of expectation and hadn't gotten so much as a sip of water before she was out the door chasing Yasuho — and then a battle with Kira, and all the aftermath. She hadn't eaten a single thing all this time and was desperately in need of fuel.
"Jolyne's not very hungry, but if there's something tasty, Jolyne can definitely eat it!"
Jolyne looked up with wide, round eyes.
"Then let's go to the supermarket, pick up some ingredients, and your big sis will make you a late-night snack. What do you think?"
Most hotels didn't have kitchens, but Jotaro-san had booked her a top-tier suite — everything she could need. The hotel restaurant was still running, of course, but for some reason... Inori suddenly felt an urge to cook. To do it herself. It had been a while.
"Is Inori-nee's cooking good?"
Jolyne's signature directness cut straight to the question that mattered.
—Kids. Merciless.
"It's... I think it's alright?"
Inori's gaze drifted sideways, unconvinced by her own answer.
The last time she'd cooked for herself had been a long time ago — back in the other world, staying as a guest at Hare's house. Once her identity became public and she became Funeral Parlor's leader, there had been no chance to try again.
"What do you want, Jolyne?"
"Curry! Fish balls!" She answered without a moment's pause. "Josuke said both of those are super good! But he said to wait until next time, and Jolyne doesn't want to wait for next time, Jolyne wants them now!"
"Then I'll make both~"
Inori ruffled the small head and smiled.
"Looks like you had a really good time with Josuke. Do you like him?"
"Yeah!" Josuke's name lit Jolyne's face up without a shred of reservation. "Jolyne likes Josuke! When Jolyne grows up, Jolyne wants to marry him and be his bride!"
—She wants to be his... bride?
"Pff — koff koff koff—!"
The beautiful pink-haired young woman nearly choked and doubled over coughing.
"Inori-nee, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine... okay, Jolyne, I understand your feelings, but he's your great-uncle. You can't marry your great-uncle."
Inori said it with a straight face while internally losing her composure entirely.
She would love to see Jotaro-san's expression when he heard this. The Joestar family's generational math was already absurd — this would make it one degree worse.
—Each of us going by our own branch of this tree — you'd be calling me 'aunt-in-law,' and I'd be calling you... 'Dad'? Ha — I genuinely cannot, I want to see Jotaro-san's face when he hears this—
"Huh?" Jolyne's lip jutted out and her mood dropped instantly. "Jolyne can't marry Josuke?"
"Absolutely not."
Inori cleared her throat with great authority.
"Then... Jolyne will just have to marry Dad instead."
—Dad was the backup plan?
"You're still very young," Inori said, now genuinely sweating. Why was this conversation getting stranger by the minute? She'd always known she wasn't great with children. "You don't really understand what 'marrying' means yet. Hasn't Jotaro-san ever taught you anything about this?"
"He has~"
Jolyne blinked up at her with perfect innocence.
"Dad said I can only marry someone stronger than him."
—Stronger than Jotaro Kujo? That's an impossibly high bar. Looks like only one person here qualifies. Heh heh heh.
—You're daydreaming about a child now, Inori-chan.
—Mind your own business. It's obviously a joke. Can't I even joke? Honestly.
Inori snapped back at Mana without ceremony. Really — Mana had been completely silent through the whole fight with Kira, and through Yasuho's departure from this world. But this, apparently, was where she couldn't hold her tongue.
"Josuke's not weak, but your dad is stronger than him by a wide margin."
"Really? But Jolyne thinks Josuke should be stronger than Dad."
"?" Inori tilted her head, genuinely curious. "What makes you say that?"
"Because Josuke's hat looks a lot stronger than Dad's!"
—His hat?
Does Josuke even wear a hat? If he wore one over that pompadour, he'd be devastated... oh. Of course.
Inori went still for a moment, then understood immediately. Jolyne had apparently mistaken Josuke's pompadour for a hat.
"That's his hair, Jolyne. Not a hat."
She's almost seven, Inori thought. How does a seven-year-old not tell a hat from hair?
Then she thought about who Jolyne's father was — Jotaro Kujo, the man who had famously merged his hat and hair into a single cohesive entity — and it made perfect sense.
"Inori-nee is wrong, it's definitely a hat! Okuyasu's hat is ugly and Koichi's hat is dumb!" Jolyne had apparently already become fully acquainted with all three boys, and dispensed with any diplomatic pretense. Her admiration for Josuke alone was genuine and unqualified.
"Next time you see him, try complimenting his hair — his hair, okay? He'll be absolutely thrilled. Complimenting Josuke's hair works better on him than complimenting anything else."
"Really?"
Jolyne's eyes went wide with delight.
"Mm, really." Inori nodded and smiled. "He lives for it. Works better than anything."
"Okay! Jolyne will definitely do that next time!"
—What a good kid.
Inori smiled quietly to herself. Pure, bright, kind — there was nothing unpleasant to think about when Jolyne was around.
How did she end up the way she did in canon? Joestar bloodline, probably. Maybe that's just the Joestar family's fate.
But — if she herself could stay in this world, Inori resolved she wouldn't let it unfold that way again. No unhappy childhood casting its shadow. No prison. No forced showdown with a rotten priest. As long as she was around, Jolyne wouldn't even need to awaken a Stand.
...Okay. That's a problem for much later. Tomorrow, go out, look around, hunt for the bone. And then pay Reimi Sugimoto one last visit — and keep her here.
"Let's go, Jolyne, or the supermarket will close~"
"Okay!"