#ah joseph’s voice surprise attacking me in the credits

[little-fandom-dump]

god im so high wtnv got me crying over a river rock

[jojosbizarreblog]

Let Down Your Crystal Walls

7 /// 8 /// 9

Chapter 8: An Ol’ Switcheroo

Song inspiration: ‘I Know A Place’ By Conan Gray

Apparently, life did not approve of the plans that Avdol and Joseph had set out for the day. Unfortunately, Polnareff had been taken into custody because of the blood and body found in his room, which had forced the group to remain at the hotel overnight until a Speedwagon Foundation lawyer to reach and help bail him out. Joseph had called the teens in that morning to tell them to go out and explore the city, handing Jotaro a credit card. As the teens, along with Anne in tow, exited the hotel, Kyogen spied a little clothing shop with homely vibes emitting from it.

“Hey Kujo,” She said, turning to the tall male and pointing to the shop. “I need to go buy some stuff. I might take a while so you guys can go ahead of me.”

“No,” he stated. “It’s better to stick together.”

“He’s right. It’s probably not a good idea to be too far from each other…” Kakyoin mused. “We could get attacked and it’s better to stay together in case of that.”

“Fine,” Kyogen sighed. “How about you three wait for me outside? If anything happens, I’ll shout.”

Jotaro frowned. “Yare yare daze. Fine”

Kyogen split herself off from the group, sticking up her hand in farewell. “I’ll try to finish this quickly.”

She entered the shop and scanned the front, searching for something important. Spotting said item, Kyogen crossed the store and came to a stop in front of the currency exchange machine. Carefully untucking the roll of money from her bag, Kyogen counted over the bills before inserting a portion of them into the machine. Singaporean dollars began filling out and Kyogen took them out and pocketed them after she was done. The rest of her remaining money was exchanged into American dollars, more versatile than the other bills. With her exchange done, Kyogen eyed the store and set off into the store. Hopefully, she would be able to replace her scrapped one with something new and also find pants suitable for the journey ahead.

Some tank tops, a gray collared blouse, and slacks were what Kyogen found in the cheapest aisle. She was now browsing the silken neckties hung on the display rack in the back. Trailing her fingers through the soft, colored fabrics, Kyogen wondered if it was worth it to buy herself one. Her eyes fell on a cobalt blue strip of fabric. It shone like a satin ribbon as she picked it up to inspect it. The fabric was something that she had never seen before, something of higher quality than all the rest of the others on display.

“That’s a beautiful piece that you’ve got there, miss.” A masculine voice said next to her.

Kyogen twitched and angled her head to see a tall, muscular male with curly black hair pulled into a poof at the nape of his neck. She nodded the slightest bit to show that she heard.

“Are you going to buy it?” He asked, perusing through the selection like she was.

Clearing her throat, Kyogen answered, “Yes.”

“Ah,” He sighed, gently putting a hand to his cheek. “A shame, I was eyeing it too.”

She was about to offer the man the fabric, but he waved her off. “First come first serve. You certainly do have good fashion tastes, take care.” He gave her a wink and walked past her, his arm brushing against hers. Kyogen frowned at the odd interaction between them but resumed perusing the display rack. Deciding to just settle on the single one, Kyogen moved away from the stand and made her way to the front of the scarf.

The portly man at the storefront gave her a passing glance as she gave him the items. “Miss, we got extra shipments of hair tie orders and we’re offering them to people who would want a set. Would you like one?”

Hair ties… They would come in handy in the long run.

“Yes please,” Kyogen said pleasantly to the man. 

He smiled at her and placed a packet of hair ties into the bag. Picking up the scarf, the man’s mouth stretched into a pleased little smile. “You found a treasure, miss! It’s marvelous, just like your eyes. I’m sure boys will trip over themselves trying to ask you out.”

Kyogen let out a noise of surprise as her cheeks turned pink. “Ah-Ah thank you, sir—”

The man handed her the bag of clothes. “No, thank you for coming to my little shop. I appreciate you and your sister coming by!”

“I—Uh… alright.” Kyogen was confused at that statement but assumed that he probably saw someone familiar-looking. She gave him a nod in thanks and grabbed the bag, bidding him goodbye. Now time to go and join the others, who hopefully haven’t been waiting too long for her—

Oh.

Kyogen came to an abrupt halt right outside the shop doors and stared at the empty streets around her. Well then, after all that adamant talk of staying together, she didn’t expect for them to leave her all alone by herself. Her moment of self-wallowing was interrupted by Sharpnote materializing next to her. The Stand whistled imploringly and pointed back to the direction of the hotel. Kyogen huffed and nodded her head, letting a sigh slip through her lips. Nothing to do now except to go back to the hotel.

***

The doors slammed shut and Kyogen allowed herself to let loose a low groan as she dropped the bag at the foot of her bed. She slid into a chair and turned to stare at the scenery out the window. Alone with her thoughts and Sharpnote again. It wasn’t as if being alone with her companion was a bad thing, Sharpnote was great at dragging her out of her head when she got too lost in her thoughts.

Her journal landed in front of her and Kyogen blinked surprised to find it out of her backpack. Sharpnote dropped the hotel pen next to her hand and whistled a short note as it sat down next to her. Kyogen huffed and uncapped the pen, drawing staff lines on the paper. It was a shame that all her other music works were all left back in Japan. Especially the one that she was in the middle of writing.

It was a few peaceful minutes as Kyogen rewrote all of the progress on her song. Something nudged her foot and Kyogen glanced at Sharpnote to see the Stand with its head resting in its hands, somehow giving her a hopeful look despite the rectangular eye holes and the lack of facial muscles. She sighed, knowing exactly what it wanted. “You want me to sing, don’t you?”

Sharpnote nodded rapidly, letting out a few whistled notes. A small smile pulled at her mouth and she gave a good-natured chuckle. “Of course you do.”

Pursing her lips, she scanned over the written song on the paper. It would have been better if she had her guitar here, but she couldn’t be picky. Clearing her throat, she tested out a few notes as a quick warm-up (warm up before you sing y’all). She resumed marking down her music, letting it calm her as the notes flowed forth.

“I know a place we could go.

I know a place where there aren’t any roads.

Where the grass is always greener…

And doesn’t hurt my fingers.

I know a place.”

Kyogen closed her eyes and thought of the place. Maybe… once this was all over, maybe she could find a different place to live.

“So come with me dear,

 The halogen hum hurts my ears.

 Swim in the springs.

 We could be free…”

Free… This was the freest that she had felt in months. A spur of the moment decision that stemmed from just one kind act. Singing a song in an empty hotel room with her own soul-person next to her. Yeah, it was free.

“Oh, I know a place we could go.

 Unpack our bags and we'll call it a home.

 The sea will sing our minds to sleep,

 I know a place we could go.”

A wistful look crossed Kyogen’s face as she put the last touch to the piece of music. She picked up the notebook and inspected the piece, running over the notes again in her head. Pushing the book over the table towards Sharpnote for the Stand to see. “Do you like it?”

The Stand gently took from her hands and held it up to the light, inspecting it. Sharpnote looked at her and gave her a thumb-up, whistling a sharp tune in happiness. Kyogen smiled and stood up, stretching and tightening her ponytail. The hair tie would slip down in a little bit though, all her hair ties usually did. Really benefiting of the ‘Housewife’ nickname that the other students had given her. 

Closing the journal, Kyogen was about to tuck it away before the hotel phone rang. Exchanging a curious look with her Stand, Kyogen crossed the room and reached to pick it up. 

“Hello?”

“KYOGEN!”

The aforementioned girl jolted at the loud exclamation of her name and pulled the phone away from her ears. “Mr. Joestar is there a problem?”

“Wait—What are you doing in the hotel room?! Aren’t you with Jotaro, Kakyoin, and Anne right now?”

Kyogen raised an eyebrow. “I am not. They left me earlier for unknown reasons so I made my way back to the hotel. I’ve been here ever since.”

A groan radiated from the receiver and she heard Joseph sigh. “For some reason, Anne phoned earlier about you turning disfigured or something and that Jotaro and Kakyoin had left in pursuit of ‘you’.”

“I-I—What—” Kyogen paused and massaged the bridge of her nose. “Mr. Joestar, I’ll come up there, then we can talk about this.”

She hung up the phone and tilted her head at Sharpnote. “We have a situation on our hands, Sharpnote.”

The Stand tilted its head then phased away. That was the signal for Kyogen to pick up the hotel keys and make her way out of the room. It didn’t take long for her to reach the room where the two older men were staying in. She was about to knock but a throb of pain rushed through her temple. Kyogen’s vision flashed crimson before images flashed before her eyes. Dirt, dust, a darkened sky, and a darker liquid. She could barely catch the images before they disappeared, leaving only a lingering ache behind her temple. The door opened as Kyogen straightened, revealing Joseph before he led her into the room to the table. The three stared at each other for a moment.

“Well this is awkward…” she muttered underneath her breath. “Mr. Joestar, you said something about another me?”

“Right! As I said, Anne called us in a panic about how Jotaro and Kakyoin had followed you after something happened. But obviously, you’re here right now with us.”

Kyogen hummed in thought. “I don’t quite know how this could have happened.” 

 “The theory that Avdol and I were considering is that maybe someone had swapped places with you.”

“Perhaps,” Kyogen racked her brain. “I separated from them early on, but they promised to wait for me until I finished my trip. But they were gone when I came out. I would assume that was when the switch happened.”

It was in moments like these that she wished her head was clearer at times. Kyogen frowned as she tried to remember most of what happened. Exchanging currency… clothes… getting a necktie.

“There was a tall man,” she blurted. It was slightly useless because practically everyone was taller than her. “He had curly, black hair pulled into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He initiated a conversation with me. He left soon after…”

Avdol nodded. “Anything else?”

Kyogen frowned in thought. “The shopkeeper. He said something about thanking me and my ‘sister’ for coming by.

Joseph pointed at her. “That’s must be it!”  

“It might be safe to assume that he’s a Stand user then,” Avdol concluded

Joseph groaned. “Great, first Polnareff, and now this attack. We don’t get a break, do we?”

“I’m sorry.”

Both men gave her a curious look. “Why are you sorry?” Joseph asked. “None of us could have predicted this. Now we’ll just have to act accordingly.”

“Alright,” Kyogen relented. “Well, how are we going to go about this now?”

“We should split up,” Joseph said. “One group picks up Polnareff and the other can meet up with Jotaro, Kakyoin, and Anne. With Hermit Purple, I can track where Jotaro and the rest are. What about you two?”

“I don’t think it’s smart for me to come to meet the group,” Kyogen mused. “It’ll only be more confusing if they decide to take my form during the confrontation.”

“I’ll accompany Kyogen,” Avdol decided. “It’ll be easier for an adult to be at hand when we reach the police station.”

“Great,” Joseph said, standing up. “Once we’re done, we’ll meet up here again.” He checked the clock on the nightstand. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to reach our next location before sundown. We might have to stay another night at the hotel.”

Kyogen nodded and stood up to follow the older men as they walked out of the room. It was when they left the entrance of the hotel did Joseph split up with them, bidding them goodbye. She followed after Avdol as the Egyptian turned right, striding briskly through the streets.

“How are you feeling, Kyogen?” Avdol asked her.

“I’m fine, thank you,” she replied mechanically.

“Are you sure?” He pried.

Kyogen stiffened. She knew that Avdol was asking out of concern but she didn’t want to bother the man. “Mhm,” she hummed. “You don’t need to worry about me, sir.”

“Well, if you ever need someone to talk to, I will be here. You don’t have to keep things bottled up.”

“Ah. Thank you.”

Polnareff was waiting by the door with two police officers and another man who she supposed was the Speedwagon Foundation lawyer that Joseph had called in, a bored look on his face. The French straightened up and threw his hands up in the air when he saw them. “Ah, finally!” He turned to the officers and pointed at them. “See? They’re here now, can I go yet?”

The lawyer exchanged hushed words with the officers, who soon tipped their hats and re-entered the station. Avdol passed Polnareff and greeted the lawyer, engaging in a conversation with the man while Polnareff and her watched. The French leaned over and greeted her, “Ah, Wind! Where’s Mr. Joestar?”

“There was a crisis with Kujo and Kakyoin so he had to go and meet up with them,” Kyogen explained

“I thought you were with Jotaro and Kakyoin?” Polnareff questioned.

“I am the crisis.”

Polnareff gave her an aghast look and Kyogen swore that she could see visible question marks pop up around his head. She didn’t elaborate and Polnareff didn’t ask as Avdol bid the lawyer goodbye.

“Well, you’re good to go, Polnareff. Let’s head back to the hotel to see if Mr. Joestar is back yet,” Avdol decided. 

“What took you guys so long?” Polnareff groaned as they started walking.

“Well Mr. Joestar and I were going to come earlier but then Anne had called us about an emergency so we had to split up to tackle everything,” Avdol explained. “The plan was for us to pick you up while Mr. Joestar met up with the kids. We will, unfortunately, have to prolong our stay at the hotel.”

Polnareff stiffened. “Are you kidding me? My room’s a wreck and one of the staff there was found dead in it, do you think they’ll even let me step foot into the building?”

“We might need to talk to Mr. Joestar about that,” Kyogen muttered. “See if he can book you a new room or not.”

Avdol nodded. “If not, you can stay with Mr. Joestar and I or with Jotaro and Noriaki.”

“Look,” Kyogen said, pointing to an approaching group. “There they are. Polnareff, you can probably talk to Mr. Joestar now.”

“Ah great. MR. JOESTAR!”

Kyogen flinched and stumbled away from the French with wide eyes. Her first instinct was to swing an elbow into his ribcage out of surprise but she managed to restrain her knee-jerk reaction as they neared the other group. She barely managed to regain her composure before a blur of purple and green came towards her.

Two faces invaded her vision and she found her arms pinned to her sides. She was lifted closer to Star Platinum’s and Hierophant Green’s faces as Star’s large hand squished her cheeks together. “Ora!”

“Raggh!” Kyogen snapped at the offending fingers. “Put me down I swear I will—”

“Jotaro! Kakyoin! Please tell your Stands to put poor Kyogen down!” Avdol interjected.

She was unceremoniously dropped back on her feet as the Stands backed away slightly. Sharpnote was in front of her, staring at the two in slight hostility as Kyogen rubbed her jaw. Sensing her distress, Sharpnote slowly backed away from the other two and then turned to her. Her vision was covered by the crystal humanoid’s pink-peach chest as it slowly leaned over on top of her, shielding her from the others.

Kyogen patted its chest gently. “I’m alright Sharpnote,” she said. “I was just startled, that’s all.”

Sharpnote pulled back to eye her. Kyogen gave it a poker-faced thumbs-up.

“Kyogen!”

The Stands moved aside as Anne rushed up to her. A slew of questions fired off and Kyogen could barely keep up with them. “What happened? Are you okay? Was that you on the cable cars?”

Kyogen held up a hand to halt Anne. “I’m fine, and that was not me on the cable cars. You guys had already left when I came out.”

Anne scratched her head. “But… we met you coming out of the shop, and you had said that there was nothing else you needed to do.”

“That wasn’t me,” Kyogen told Anne.

“How is that possible? There’s only one of you!”

“Remember what I told you before? There are many people coming for our group and some of them are capable of things you can never imagine.”

Anne didn’t seem too perturbed as she pursed her lips. “That’s obvious,” she said. “Your group is weird, you keep talking to thin air, there are incvisible ghosts and stuff, and trouble follows you all. But it doesn’t seem like any of you guys want to hurt people.”

Right.

Kyogen smiled humorlessly as she fished the hotel keys out of her pockets and passed them to Anne. “You can go up to rest if you need to. I’ll be up there soon.”

The girl graciously took the keys, leaving Kyogen, who turned to the rest of the groups. “Kujo, Kakyoin,” she greeted them coolly. “I hope that there’ll be less surprise Stand checkups later on.”

Noriaki threw her a small smile and Jotaro huffed. “You nearly bit my Stand,” the latter muttered, scowling at her. “What the hell was that?”

“A stress response,” Kyogen replied. “You try being picked up by beings nearly two heads taller than you.”

“Sorry about that Wind,” Kakyoin apologized with a bemused smile on his face. “We were still wary from the previous events.”

“Whatever happened anyway?” Polanreff asked. “None of us really knows what happened.”

“How about we go up to the hotel room and talk about this?” Avdol suggested. “It’ll be more comfortable for us to talk about everything inside.”

Kyogen nodded. “Alright.”

***

Kyogen startled awake as the train rattled around them violently. She stared at her reflection in foggy terror. Shreds of the dream still clung to her mind but it was quickly disappearing the longer she was awake. She remembered a stark white place and a single figure with their back to her, purple-edged dark cracks creeping out from them and into the environment around them. The train rattled again and Kyogen straightened up, adjusting the tied bow around her neck, ignoring the look that Jotaro shot her from where he was next to her. 

“Welcome back Wind,” Kakyoin greeted her wryly. “I’m surprised you were able to sleep with all the noise around us.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kyogen grumbled, still fixing the bow. “I don’t sleep easily but I’m a heavy sleeper.”

“What woke you up then? It certainly couldn’t have been Polnareff here. He’s been talking for the past 2 hours and you’ve been out cold.” Kakyoin jerked a thumb to the French.

Her hand paused, then it gave a harsh yank and the bow unraveled, the piece of fabric laying limp in her hands. “I can’t remember,” Kyogen replied, pointedly ignoring his eyes and focusing on her hands. Not exactly a lie, but not exactly a truth either.

“Hm, alright then,” Kakyoin said. “Well, at least you got some sleep.”

The train rattled onwards.