JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Thin Air

Chapter Seven: Sibling Reunion

"J-Josuke..." Shizuka said, staggering up from her seated position. "You really came..." 

She threw herself forward and buried her face into Josuke's chest. She silently wept into his shirt. Josuke put one arm around her back, and used the hand of his other arm to caress her head, and slowly rocked her body back and forth for several minutes. No one said a word. Josuke pitied his young sister, who had become an orphan for a second time. He was the family member she became the most attached to. He was the only person she could confide in.

Once Shizuka had collected herself, she pulled back from Josuke and sat back in front of her father's gravestone. Josuke did the same and sat across from his sister, in a way that placed them on either side of the grave.

"You really came here... all the way out to England," Shizuka said. "Why are you here?" 

"Like I said in that text, it's important. And the best way to tell you this was in person, right in front of the reason that started all this." he said, pointing to the gravestone. His voice was serious and firm, yet gentle at the same time.

"It's about-- it's about what happened to him, right?"

"Mhm. A couple of days ago, I got an email from an officer who's investigating the case. He said that... what happened... wasn't an accident."

"Of course it wasn't accident. Papa sacrificed himself for me."

Silence fell upon the group once again. Josuke looked at his sister, his eyes welling up with water. He quickly wiped them away before Shizuka could notice them. He took a deep breath. Both Clapton and Monica had their heads lowered out of respect.

"I was told that there was a person of interest identified, but not detained. Shizuka, do you remember who the Speedwagon Foundation is?"

She nodded. During her childhood, she often made trips to their offices in Washington D.C and Dallas with her father and nephew and got behind-the-scenes peaks at the development of state-of-the-art technology that no one else had access to. She heard stories of how they helped her family, such as when they cared for her sister Holly in 1988 and '89, revived her father, and tended to Jotaro in 2011. At some point of her life, she was so obsessed with them, that she aspired to work for them one day. But of course, this dream shattered along with Joseph's life.

"What do they have to do with this? You know, besides-

"We don't need to talk about that of all things in front of these guys," Josuke whispered, referring to Monica and Clapton. "Anyways, this person of interest once worked for the Speedwagon Foundation, but not anymore. His name is Willis Nicholson."

"Willis... Nicholson, huh? Is he- is he the reason all this happened?" Shizuka asked nervously.

"No clue. Even though he's considered a person of interest, I'd call him a suspect."

"Why's that?"

Josuke's gaze turned to his father's gravestone once more.

"Because... if anyone wanted to stop my father, Joseph Joestar, for any reason at all, they'd have to make sure that he was dead. That's the kind of man he was."

Shizuka's heart shattered and fixed itself simultaneously. She was proud of the fact that her dad was such a tough nut to crack, but grieved at the fact that he even drew his last breath at all.

"What are you getting at with this?" Shizuka asked her brother.

"I'm saying that it's my duty to get justice for him," he said confidently. "I'm gonna find Nicholson myself."

Shizuka's pupils grew as far as they could. She found it hard to comprehend what she just heard.

"Are you crazy, Josuke? You're just asking to get hurt? Think about Ally and Joshuro! Think about the town!" Shizuka said as her temperament fired up. "Are you trying to end up like Papa?"