MAGO - Stardust Crusaders X OC

Chapter Twenty-One: Monday, December 26 + Tuesday, December 27

The next day passed, as Mr Joestar had mentioned, through travelling by camel. And despite his endless insistence that he would be able to teach them how to ride camels, and there wouldn't be any problems at all...

To put it simply, Mr Joestar was a liar. He had never ridden a camel before, and said that his experience from watching Lawrence of Arabia three times - and twice, he'd slept through half. Sana didn't understand him at all.

Nobody said a word as he swerved around on his camel. They just watched. There was nothing to be done but stare. There was no way it could've been that difficult, and it wasn't. Sana tried to frame it like Mr Joestar just had bad luck with camels.

Nonetheless, the group pressed on in their journey, spending a whole day in the sweltering sun without any shade at all. Nothing happened at all, though, aside from a couple of stupid jokes about Sana being in her element here. But there were no fights, and Sana figured that was for the best, because the heat was unbearable enough as is.

Still, the group arrived without incident at a small airport and hotel. Mr Joestar had a discussion with the owner, and bought a small plane that could hold all of them. And so the group went to bed, tired out, relieved to fall into their cool, separate rooms, away from anyone else's warmth. And Sana fell asleep without any problems at all, and didn't even dream. She awoke rested and optimistic about the flight. Today was going to be a good day, she decided.

Sana left her room, having packed up already, fifteen minutes early. She went outside to the airstrip to find Jotaro and Mr Joestar already there. Sana placed her bags next to Jotaro, and stood there in silence, watching Mr Joestar talking to the owner.

As it turned out, they were arguing. There was some sick baby with a high fever, and the owner wanted them to use the plane to take the baby to a doctor instead of letting the group take it, even though they'd paid for it only the night before. Mr Joestar was, understandably, not happy with that at all.

Noriaki and Polnareff walked up. Polnareff sauntered around like normal, but Noriaki didn't seem quite right. He had shadows under his eyes, and his shoulders were slightly hunched inwards, like he was nervous.

"What's up?" Polnareff asked. "Some kind of argument?"

"Yeah," Jotaro answered, turning back to see what was unfolding. Sana glanced at Noriaki for a moment, but he didn't meet her eyes, so she watched the argument instead. Maybe they could talk later.

"You'll be able to use the plane after it gets back tomorrow night. We can renegotiate and talk prices then," the owner said, resolutely standing his ground.

Mr Joestar's eyes widened and his demeanour immediately changed. "Did you just say tomorrow night?" he said, and then he lunged forward, grabbing the owner by the collar. "Our group has someone's life on the line just like you guys do! We can't afford to spend two days pissing around this place!"

But the owner was unphased. "So! What you're telling me is that you'd rather let that baby die?"

Mr Joestar faltered. The owner had him there, and everyone knew it. But the fact was, it was some random baby, or his baby, the girl he'd raised and watch grow into an adult and now he would have to watch her die if he didn't go now-

And Sana didn't know if she was supposed to speak up or not, but she kept her mouth shut for a while, just to see how it would play out. Almost immediately, she was glad of it, because there was a development. "Excuse me. I have a suggestion," the woman holding the baby's basket suggested. "We can kill two birds with one stone by having these travellers take him to the doctor on their way." The woman readjusted her grip, and waited for an answer.