Chapter Text
Today the sun burnt red.
Sometimes it was yellow, other times orange, and once, in the December months he swore it was purple for a week.
A thin needle prick in the sky it was, a mere pinpointed dot that hung low in space, somewhere deep within the clouds. The same clouds that made their daily crawl along the skyline, led and dust trapped beneath the ruse of moisture. The clouds had long since held rain, and had long since unveiled the fullness of the sun. It wasn't really warm, more dry than it was hot. The air was stale, arid climate having scarred the atmosphere to make every draft as dry as the dirt. Though, living on Earth as it is now, one gets acclimated to the shitty and unpredictable weather, and by the time you forget what rain feels like, sounds like, you don't miss it as much.
He takes a moment to become fully awake, peering at the waking sun through the filter of his lashes. Sucking in a deep breath, he tries not to cough too loudly as the usual dust interrupts his breathing. Scrunching up his nose as the quiet coughing subsides, he raises his arms above his head to stretch. His muscles sore from the aches of sleeping in a car, the leather-patted seat squeaking awkwardly as he moves as if to remind him of his unsavory position. He's tempted to comb his fingers through his hair, but knows better since they didn't have lots of that off-brand hair-gel left. Who knows if they'd actually find anything like that again, or if they'd even find a mall that didn't have the roof caved in.
An exasperated sigh soon turns to a yawn as he lets his arms fall back against his sides. From the passengers seat, he can see the majority of the car's cab. A clunky old convertible, so worn out that the labels and tags had long since peeled away. They had stayed in various cars, in questionable conditions to generally functional conditions. This one in particular, well, they were simply happy the junker even cranked at this point.
He cuts a sidelong glance at Okuyasu in the driver's seat, a boy in recent years he had come to call his best friend. It's no easy task to find wholesome friends when the world has come to an end, especially if you weren't even on the planet at that time. New kid on the block was tough, but new kid on the planet was another story. However, the other boy was wonderfully willing to take him in as a companion, after their initial squabbles. Okuyasu had his head rested on the steering wheel, not the best pillow, especially when the slightest movement could result in him blasting the horn for everyone in the wastes to hear. Plus, the dog would get upset, and once it starts barking, there is no force that can sooth it's cries.
Speaking of the dog, he can hear it now, snoring from the backseat. Police, or so Koichi liked to call it, was splayed out across the backseat in which it shared with the other company to their ventures. Koichi Hirose, the only one of them who had a real family name, or one he cared to mention. The blonde lie beneath Police, a map of the continents (almost bigger than he was) fanned out to shield his face from the light. Words could be seen from the backside of the map, having bled through form the sharpie ink and Koichi's chicken-scratch he deemed legible handwriting. Markers that indicated landmarks, points of interest, places to find food, and places to avoid were marked in the colorful ink along the map. Koichi and the rest of them found comfort in knowing where they are geographically, it made the pitiful, post-apocalyptic wastelands they called home to be a little less empty feeling.
"Shit..." he hears, directing him once again to the driver's seat. "Morning already...? Fuck it, the sky always looks the same." Okuyasu can be heard mumbling as he glared daggers at the meters and gages he could see through the gaps in the wheel. Groaning as he shifts from the likely uncomfortable position he had fallen asleep in, Okuyasu narrows his eyes at him before leaning entirely back in the seat, raking his hands down his face with another, muffled whine. "Josuke, what time is it?" He says through his hands.
Josuke first looks to the car's dashboard, at the clock specifically, but remembers the car isn't on and the clock had been inoperable since they found the vehicle. He shrugs, even though the other can't see the gesture, beginning to fish through his pockets for the iPod they all shared. Drawing it from the depths of his pants he turns the device on, the dimmed, and not to mention cracked screen reading: 6:34 AM
"A little past six." He responds.
"Morning?" Okuyasu peeps, peering at Josuke through a gap in his fingers, still rested against his face.
"Yes, morning."
Okuyasu whines once again before attempting to rub the sleep from his eyes, "Alright." he says, at full volume, which is quite loud. He makes work of cracking his knuckles before leaning around the corner of his seat, smacking a hand against the glove-department between the two front seats.
"Up, Up, We gotta get goin'" He announces, Koichi emitting some sort of mix between a grunt and garbled words in response. Police stirred as well, raising it's floppy ears and shooting them it's signature dead look.
Josuke chuckles softly under his breath before swinging back around in his seat. Koichi can be heard sitting up, the map crumpling and folding as it's own personal sounds of protest. He snatches the creasing edges before the grew too terribly crinkled, holding onto that map as if it were his most valued possession, which, sadly was the truth. Aside from the dog that is.
Okuyasu fiddles around the various cup-holders and compartments before he locates the keys again, faded souvenir keychains of American cities they did not know, jangling as he makes work of jamming them into the ignition. The car kicks to life, roaring and sputtering in a most discordant and jarring manner.
"God it sounds like shit." Josuke thinks aloud. "Bro, the car /is/ shit." Okuyasu muses, furrowing his brow as the gear-shift gives him trouble. Josuke rolls his eyes in response, although knowing he couldn't see it. "Let me know when you find a mechanic, or like, an auto-part guy. I'd love to chat with him about fixin' our clunker." Okuyasu grumbles bitterly as the gears finally shift from Park to Reverse.
"Ah," He sighs, "Fuck off."
Hoarse laughter quickly fills the open air as they carefully pull out from the rocky alcove they had stopped at last night. At least, he liked to assume they were rocks and, he also liked to assume this was just some mundane little desert in the middle of buttfuck nowhere. Unfortunately, this was no desert, and this place was certainly not nowhere. It was earth, right smack in the middle of North America, or what Koichi had informed them was "most likely" North America. It was a city, the rocks were crushed buildings that had been ravaged by the apocalypse. The dust was not sand but burnt bodies, homes, lives and intertwining realities all whisked away in the cataclysm that was the literal, end of the world. The car's tires rattle against various debris, the whole cab shaking as they drive over the more rugged paths.
"Where to today?" Josuke asks after the roads finally started feeling more like roads and less like waste-space, he emphasizes his inquiry by craning his neck to peer into the back seat.
Koichi fought valiantly against the wind, a convertible with no hood not being the best venue for holding onto a map. The air whipping past them eagerly awaiting the moment in which it could pluck the boy's hard work away from him, deprive them of their navigating force.
"Um," He hesitates, squinting at the scrawled sharpie text along the map's surface. "I think, that, if we keep going this way we'll be at that one mall we went to last month. Like, the big one with the real roof."
"The one with the dogs?" Okuyasu asks, more of a protest than a question.
"Yeah, but it's been a while. They've likely moved on, ate what they could find, y'know?" Koichi argues, Police the dog seeming to agree with him, affirming this with a complementary snuffle.
"Since there were dogs last time we didn't get to finish looking, there could still be things to sell there. Or food, or something. It's just--" He clears his throat with a cough, "We've been everywhere else really and I don't think this car can make it across the continent."
"Hell, it took us forever to find this thing. We should at least stick around until it dies, then we can head back out. We should head back to Japan, that was fun. Change of scenery." Josuke hums, folding his arms behind his head and looking to the sky's morning shade of murk.
"It all looks the damn same to me." Okuyasu hisses, gripping the steering wheel tighter as he rounds a curve.
"It's the atmosphere."
"Atmosphere my ass."
"Guys, please." Koichi interrupts, "Stuff is stuff, we have to look where we can. One place at a time."
-------------------
They carried on like that for a while, circling the various points a car could fit and travel across until they were eventually driven to carry the rest out on foot. Okuyasu locking the car for no other purpose aside from good luck, despite the fact that the whole thing was wide open as is, it was a hoodless convertible after all. Police hopping out of the car, only after the three of them disappeared from it's already poor vision.
The mall before them indeed did have a roof, but the structural integrity of it was always in question. As they stepped inside, their footsteps echoed out across the busted linoleum, adding to the overall eeriness of the building. Koichi shivered, as he always shivered in places like this. Something in the distance breaking off with a distant, but resonating crash, nearly making the blonde jump out of his skin.
"Hey," Josuke speaks, breaking the silence and trying to ease the nervous haze that hung over all their heads, "Some of the stores still have lights on!" He flashes a toothy grin at the boys before skirting over to one of the lit up rooms. The gates were unfortunately down, denying them access to whatever wares might have potentially been hidden inside. Pressing his face up against the cold metal he strains his vision to peer in, past the strobing lights, just to see. Various dolls and bed-like structures could be seen beneath layers upon layers of dirt and debris. What he wouldn't give to sleep on a bed, a real bed. His eyes sparkle with the wondrous thought of waking up without annoying back pain, until he spares a glance at the shop-counter. The clerk, or whoever/whatever was the clerk lies slumped over the register where they had presumably died. Dried out tendrils of some unknown horror peaking past a break in their skull like dried fruit, the skin pulled taunt across the corpse, face still twisted in an eternal expression of agony. When the world came to an end, the cultists attached to the single man seeking the earth's boon, all died as well. They went down with him, their minds once chained and warped by his influence now bursting forth from their heads. The price of getting too close to such a corrupt flame, the price of idiocy, and the price of mislead loyalty.
Josuke bites his lip, shaking his head as he steps away. "Nothin' good in there anyway. Let's keep going." He says, voice lacking a bit of it's usual bounce. Okuyasu peeps over his shoulder at the dimly lit store, taking Josuke's word for it, but knowing that there must have been something unsightly in there.
Brushing off the initial eeriness of the halls and lines of stores accompanying the abandoned mall, the three of them proceed to look around more thoroughly. Occasionally the floor would creak as they scaled the mall grounds, the sounds of long since emptied pipes whining in the distance. It's a dull and rattling hum, a rat within a far off drain, scampering along the metal surface, a sound that calls out to the boys with a more haunting nature than need be.
"Hmm, we should see if we can find one of those directories, the...the big maps that they used to put up in here." Koichi muses, ducking away from a store who's front was blocked by chunks of the ceiling, the sun beaming in through the gap in the roof.
"Aren't those things like, run mainly on electricity...? There's not much of that to go around, y'know." Okuyasu responds with a huff, kicking up a patch of dirt with his shoe.
Josuke peers around the space again in search of one such directory, they're usually out in the open. Glowing and tall, dotted with tiny color coded squares and numbers. Narrowing his eyes he quickly rounds the curve to examine the next available space. One of the larger clothing stores can be seen, letters from it's title barely hanging above the barred up space. "Elk" It reads. Josuke screws up his face trying to recall what it might have actually said, maybe Belk? Belk was a clothing store in America, yeah? He nods his head in confirmation of his own thoughts. The other two make their way over to where he stands before he starts to explore the space again. A structure, similar to what might have once been a directory.
"Man, do you think I could get it to work?" Josuke asks, tilting his head, akin to that of a dog as he approaches the seemingly broken map-face.
"Dude, like that vending machine?" Okuyasu squawks, rounding the directory in a full circle, hands buried in his pockets.
"This is hardly a vending machine and, you don't really know how your, uh, thing works." Koichi argues, furrowing his brows as he looks to the darkened screen with dismay.
Josuke had a strange ability, a power he had only just recently come in acquaintance with. He didn't have a name for it, nor a way to truly describe it in any normal sense. It's simply, a power, a power that would most likely be a hell of a lot more helpful, if he knew how to properly use it. So far, it's allowed them to bring a vending machine back to life, the reward: several flat cokes. It's almost like electricity, but it comes straight from his finger-tips and bends to his will.
Most of the time.
He can fix things too. If he tries really really hard, like, trembling and nose-bleed inducing hard. Reassemble broken objects and one time, he healed a nasty gash under Okuyasu's eye following a run in with some not-so-friendly-survivors. But only once.
He likes to tell himself that it's magic, it helps him sleep at night. Likes to tell himself it's helpful, he just needs some practice. Those thoughts are always more comforting than the worry of an unknown curse, more comforting than questioning his humanity. His family might know, might have known, but it's long since too late to seek their guidance, not that he'd want it at this point.
Drawing himself away from those thoughts he places a hand on the face of the directory glass, Okuyasu and Koichi watching with almost humorously interested gazes. Josuke allows a smile to crease his lips as he views their eager looks askance. He can feel the fractured glass beneath the pads of his fingers, tapping his index along the fractured shards that remained in their place. Closing his eyes he tries to summon that nameless energy, slowly taking in a deep breath as he concentrates.
He can hear Okuyasu practically vibrate with excitement, tapping his feet against the tile as he awaits the magic that may or may not surface.
"Shit, he's gonna do it. He's gonna do it." He whispers.
Josuke can almost imagine Koichi's reprimanding gaze as he shushes him.
Luckily, he doesn't fail to impress them. Soon, the lightening-like energy crackles around his fingers, curling between his digits before seeping beneath the glass. He can sense the broken pieces, the internal components from the outside looking in. A bulb was busted in the lower rings, the electricity hooked up through the building still firing off tiny bursts to the directory, only it seemed invisible due to the broken lights. He does his best to focus his energy, to feel the bulb, even as he can't directly touch it. Fix it. Fix it, he thinks. This could determine whether or not they eat this week. Fix it, and they'll find that store, get the goods, and sell it for food. Fix it.
There's a loud click, and he no longer feels the harsh and fractured glass dig into his palm.
"HOLY SHIT!" Okuyasu howls, clapping his hands together, "Holy shit! Watch the glass, watch the fucking glass move!" Police the dog can be heard howling as well, somewhere in the distance as if in congratulations.
Josuke's eyes flutter open once again to observe his miracle in motion. The shattered glass beneath his hand reassembled right before his very eyes. Each tiny shard, each and every missing piece finding it's way back to complete the puzzle. Then, as the icing on the cake, the light from within the directory map flickers back on. Albeit dim and slightly strobing, it is a light no less.
"Woah." Koichi murmurs, "The light and everything is fixed. Josuke, you're god-sent."
He beams in response to their amazement and praise, one of the many perks of his unusual talent. The two others quickly shuffle over to the directory to observe it's contents. Stores and venues where labeled in thin, neat english text along the pane of glass, fading in and out of view as the poor electrical current washes in and out. Josuke could make out some of the words, none of the old human languages coming easy to him. It's a learning process, especially when these languages are rarely spoken. Aside from the music collection on the shared iPod, the group of them haven't heard a great deal of old earth languages spoken aloud. Koichi at the very least, can read most of it.
"Okay..." he pauses, running his finger along the list of shops at the bottom of the map. "Jared's Gallery of Jewelry." He speaks slowly as if testing how the words sounded when said.
"Jewlery." Okuyasu echoes, "Like, bling? The shiny shit?"
"Like diamonds and wedding bands, gold and, more diamonds." Josuke chirps in addition.
Koichi simply nods his head before raising his eyes to search for the gallery on the full map. Josuke points at the big blue square labeled 'Belk'. "That's where we are." Okuyasu squints at the map as well, until locating their desired destination.
"Bingo~!" He chimes.
---------------------
It's almost as if they're in a rush to get there after finding out where exactly it was. Rounding each curve and corner, scaling the halls and winding ways of the mall. Only stopping once to snag one of the stroller carts left standing towards one of the exits. Nestled between what might have been a bookstore and a cosmetics shop lies the jewelry store. The gate halfway down, wedged between the floor and debris, allowing enough room for the three and the cart to slip inside. Lights in the back flashed on and off, illuminating the sparkling surfaces of the jewels and countless shinnies beneath a shattered glass surface. Okuyasu gasps once he gets a good look at the wares beneath the cases, rings and precious stones once lined up neatly for display now clustered together in one precious mash. However, even unorganized it was no less a spectacle. Koichi tip-toed around the pieces of broken glass lining the surface of the floor, stealing himself a glance, he too grows wide eyed at the sheer number of valuables tucked away in one space.
Okuyasu dashes around the side of the case, glass crunching beneath his shoes as he moves. Koichi makes quick work of grabbing careful handfuls of the jewels and dropping them into the cloth cart. Josuke merely stands, shaking his head as he picks through the countless array of colors before him. Each stone cut precisely to fit into the gold or silver bands of rings, necklaces, or earrings. The store's lights would wash over them like the ocean tide every few seconds, causing them to shimmer and dance with even more colors than he could possibly conceive. Truly a beautiful display, many people would have been made happy by one such gift as any of these items. That is, if they could afford them.
"Bro. I got you somethin'" He hears Okuyasu's hoarse, yet pleased voice from beside him, urging him to look away from the case. "Oh my god." Koichi can be heard quietly from the front of the store. Josuke looks to Okuyasu, who is kneeled in the floor, on one knee with a small blue felted box in the palm of his hand. He has to bite his lip not to giggle at the gesture, Koichi mumbling something in the background about not proposing with earrings. Okuyasu looks at him, eyes glimmering expectantly.
Josuke places a hand over his chest, feigning shock. A wolfish grin splitting his features, "For little ol' me?" He coos, delicately plucking the jewelry from the plush nest in which they lay. Okuyasu snickers, "I know you've only got like, one ear pierced, but it's still pretty cool."
Diamonds, little tee-tiny diamond studs in the shape of hearts. When the light passed over them, a near rosy glow is emitted from the stone. "Bitchin'." He affirms, Okuyasu springing up from his position along the floor.
As the rest of them finish scooping the jewelry into their cart, Josuke removes the tiny star he's kept in his ear for god-knows how long. Replacing it with the diamond he had been so graciously presented with.
From there it's easy. It's uniform and borderline predictable.
There is a system, to compensate for those who do end up unfortunate enough to be exiled to earth, still living on the earth, lost on the earth, you name it, that allows for some means of survival. Not many are able to find and live off of what they can personally scrounge up in the wastes, most would die out trying to either find food or fight the others trying to find food. Well, since the Empire cares enough to aid them but not enough to monitor them, there is of course, a system. The system consists of a semi-sort of scavenger hunt. You go out into the wastes, scour the grounds for valuables of any debatable type and the Bookers will decide how happy you are for the next week or month. Bookers, are the non-human creatures sent to earth to gather such valuables for parts or wealth, who distribute nonperishable food units equal to the worth of what one person brings in. It's hardly fair game for everyone, seeing that there's a high chance they won't like anything you've brought them, and you'll go hungry.
Ain't no rest for the weary, as they used to say.
Josuke, Okuyasu, and Koichi carefully lift their stolen cart of jewelry, auto-parts, and various items scrounged up over the past few weeks to stand in line behind the scarce crowd of other humans awaiting their judgement. Josuke hates this part, hates how wishy-washy the Bookers are. One day you could bring them something, and the next week you bring in the same thing and get three times less what they first give you. He shakes his head, absentmindedly twirling his fingers about his pockets as they wait.
These scavenging grounds are the closest to the outside world they'll ever really get. It has the most electricity, highest functioning technology, and the only real way to contact any parties outside of earth. Over an intercom and several mounted display screens, a endless stream of names is being announced, in a single monotone voice. It went on and on, repeating them again once it had finished, which it rarely did. If someone wanted to get lost, real lost, off the radar type of lost, they'd come to earth to hide. Countless criminals, war veterans, alien rebels, and a whole lot of crazy assholes dropped down into earth in the hopes of escaping whatever life they once came from. So, in these pits, they have that list of names as a sort of barrier, a warning to those who think it would be easy to simply vanish. The Empire has eyes everywhere, there is no true hiding from their will. If your name were to appear up on that screen, and the Bookers recognized you, well, the stay on earth would be much shorter term than anticipated.
Even now he can hear it, names rattling on and on in the Empire's tongue, the universal language as they now called it, like a secret prayer to the damned.
"Somthin' on your mind?" Okuyasu asks, speaking japanese now, as the three of them did when not addressing the Bookers. Josuke blinks a few times as if he hadn't heard him, then shaking his head and replying. "Nah, just tired of hearing the role call." Okuyasu cuts his eyes in the direction of the screens, watching the reel pass by for a moment or two. "Me too."
"Next." The Booker snarls, a fiendish twelve-eyed mass of a creature. Hulking and grotesque looking, like a failed clay pinch-pot. Koichi almost jumps out of his skin at the voice addressing them, wheeling their mall cart up to the table. Wordlessly, the three of them worked to place and separate all the jewelry store finds and various other goods. The Booker watches them with a skeptical gaze, gurgling impatiently as they fished and sorted. It looks over their finds briefly, too briefly. With one chubby hand it scoops the jewels into a bin, wheeling over to the large crates containing the edible units.
"Two thirds portions." It spits. Okuyasu gawks, and Koichi visibly deflates. Josuke feels as if his heart just dropped into his ass.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Okuyasu roars, slamming a hand down on the table. "There's three fucking people in front of you! All that shit for two thirds?? Are you shitting me?!"
Koichi raises a hand to try and stop this argument before it starts, but is too late to speak.
"Did you even look, like, really look at what we got? That stuff was really valuable!" Josuke adds in, folding his arms across his chest defensively.
"Yeah, valuable to humans." The Booker groans coldly, "Bring better shit and then you'll not be so hungry at night."
Okuyasu sputters, too angry to even speak, for Josuke the feeling was mutual.
"C-Can you please...check again?" Koichi peeps, voice barely strong enough to be heard. The Booker rolls it's many eyes before wheeling back over to the contents bin. "Okuyasu Nijimura...Koichi Hirose....and Josuke." It drawls, fishing through their goods one last time with the same disinterest as before. It was clear the creature wasn't changing it's mind.
It's as if time simply refuses to move, their misfortunes reeling on and on, just like the endless list of names being coughed up over the intercom.
This person, and this person, and this person, and this person, and this person, and Josuke Joestar.
Josuke Joestar.
There's a weighted silence that follows, one that naturally shouldn't be present. It's all in his head, he thinks, he hopes. The silence is definitely his own, panic starting to settle into his bones and set his nerves ablaze. Maybe it really isn't quiet, he just can't hear anything else over his heartbeat pounding in his ears. All the color leaves his features as he feels a cold chill ripple up his spine, he stares blankly around the space as if waiting for the moment that time starts again, normalcy returns instead of shattering into a million tiny pieces. But that moment doesn't come. Okuyasu and Koichi, for the moment have seemingly forgotten their dispute with the Booker, turning their gazes to Josuke's trembling shape. They looked confused, their eyes feeling like tiny needles boring into his skin. Josuke wanted to throw up, right then and there, but he can't even will himself to do that, he can barely breathe at this point.
"Bro, was that your name? That was your name! Your name was on that thing." Okuyasu snaps, furrowing his brows to fix a concerned glare at Josuke who couldn't even muster a croak in response. It felt all the more real, having someone else acknowledge it. Koichi's eyes grow wide, and Josuke feels as if Koichi wishes it wasn't real too.
"Why...?" Is all he manages to say, nice and slow, scared even.
Josuke sucks in a deep breath, everything spinning wildly around him as struggles to keep himself calm.
The Booker flashes them a wolfish grin, scanning the title cards for the three of them from a cluttered clipboard at the table.
"Knew something was missin'" It drawls, sounding suddenly more fiendish than ever. It scrawls that wretched last name, tacks it on behind his first as if it were a final nail upon a coffin. "Josuke Joestar." It sings and this time Josuke does puke.
So much for playing it off.
The Booker peeps at him, frowning in disgust. "You've been hiding, huh? Nice, looks like they want you back." It says, matter-of-factly, as if it had somehow known this all along. With a calculated sigh, it directs it's attention to Okuyasu and Koichi, as Josuke coughs and shudders beside them.
"How's about I strike you boys a deal?" It coos, wheeling around to the back to drag the entire cart of edible units up to the main counter. The people in line behind them now much more interested in the crate than the sick teen. "Hand you little friend over, and this, and everything I've got out back is yours." The crowd hisses and wails in astonishment, Koichi and Okuyasu's eyes growing as wide as the moon. Okuyasu places his hands on either side of his head, shaking and wringing his fingers through his hair. "Oh my fucking god." He whispers.
"NO!" Koichi wails, "No! No! No! We can't, we won't do that!" He looks to Okuyasu, shaking now himself from the pure shock of everything happening now.
"We gotta go."
He elbows Okuyasu before going over to gently tap Josuke's back, the boy rising carefully from the ground as if he himself might shatter. Koichi wonders if Josuke is now wheezing or crying, or perhaps both.
The three of them stagger over to the car, Josuke's eyes darting back and forth before being glued to the sky. He couldn't will himself to run, could barely stand without leaning against the hood of the car. Letting out a shuddering breath, he buries his face in his hands and finally sinks to the ground beside the car.
"Josuke..." Koichi starts, having not the slightest idea as to what he should say.
"Start talking." Okuyasu slams a hand down on the car, making the other two flinch, "Now."
"I...." Josuke squeaks.
"Who the hell are you? Where are you from? There's a shit-ton of things you could have--should have already fucking told us. Stop being so shifty and fess-up. Are you like a criminal? Or, or what?! Talk!"
"I'm...not a criminal. I...You know, the Empire right? The big ship up there that is the capitol to the remaining humans...y'know, the one's that left earth?" There's a silence before he continues, "The Empire, is run by a family...that kinda started the Empire in the first place..."
Koichi starts to catch on, eyes widening once more.
"Well, that family...is my family. They're called the Joestars, and I'm the fourth in line. The...second in command is my father. I ran away, when I was little. I just couldn't take being a part of it anymore and I left, I ended up here...and I thought they'd just think I died but---but I was wrong, they want me back and they'll tear this planet apart trying to find me..." He trails off, a hiccup stunting his speech as he furiously wipes the tears from his eyes. "I can't go back, I can't let them take me back." He whispers.
Okuyasu settles down on the ground beside him, Koichi quickly following suit.
"I don't give a flying fuck if they want you back, you must have had a good reason to leave." Okuyasu assures him, "They won't have you, not over my dead body."
"Mine too!" Koichi adds in, clenching his fists by his side as he tries to look less scared than he actually is.
"They always get what they want..." Josuke mumbles through his fingers.
"Fuck them, they'll have to get through us! We'll die trying." Josuke spreads his fingers to peer at Okuyasu with a troubled gleam in his eyes, "Well, not actually die--you know what I mean! We got your back, ain't nothing going to happen to you. And, if anything does happen....we're here for you all the way."
"They'll just have to take us with you!" Koichi squeaks, offering Josuke the slightest of smiles.
"We're a packaged deal." Josuke laughs softly, finding his spirits greatly rekindled by the support of his friends, his best friends.
"We'll run first." He sniffles, "We'll give them hell." Carefully, his legs still feeling like jelly, he rises from the ground.
"Fuck yeah!" Okuyasu springs to his feet, hopping into the drivers seat of the car. Koichi darts around the side, whistling for the dog to follow them in. Josuke eases his way into the passenger seat, hoping, praying that this works out.
"How much time do we have?" Koichi asking as he hastily unfolds the map from his seat.
"Um..." Josuke hums in thought.
A sounds like thunder splits the sky, the very clouds that hung so stubbornly against the air whisked clear out of the way. A ship no doubt, a sound so unfamiliar it must have been years before anyone has heard anything like it on Earth. The three boys and everyone in the scavenging pit's eyes are directed upwards in a feeling most truly akin to fear, a darkness spreading about the desert, an enormous shadow cast of what was to come.
"Not very long."