Beyond The Stars

【Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ １】

It had been a few months since we moved into our new home, and unfortunately, we still had no leads on the Stand Arrow.

I was sat in my little office on the ground floor of our house, looking over the notes I had written about the arrow.

My office was small and square with only a few pieces of furniture – I guess it wasn't much of an office as such, but more like a little room that I tended to coop myself up in 80 percent of the time. I only had a small desk with a set of drawers beside it, and two chairs on either side of the desk. On top of my desk was a computer monitor and beneath the desk was the computer tower. I never really used the computer much even if I bought it with the intention of typing up my research notes, or browse the internet in the hopes there was some kind of article about the Stand Arrow.

"Y/N? You better not be cooped up in that room you call an office again," I heard Polnareff call to me from the other side of the door.

"What makes you think that?" I asked, not taking my eyes off my research notes.

I heard the door creak open which made me look up to see Polnareff leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded over his chest.

"Well, you're not in your room, your shoes are at the door, so there's only one other place you'd be," he pointed out as he stepped inside and picked up my research notes. "And staring at these all day is not gonna bring us any closer to finding the arrow."

"Well, what else am I supposed to do? We've not had any leads on the arrow since moving here. There's no sign of the guy with the arrow either. I'm starting to think that vision wasn't right."

"Then why would Scarlet Phantom show you a vision that was wrong?"

"Maybe the vision meant something else."

"Like?" Polnareff tilted his head to the side.

I sighed and leaned my elbows on the desk whilst rubbing my temples. I never did tell Polnareff that Nori was in the vision and told me it was time to come home.

"I dunno. I just think it could mean something else."

Polnareff walked around the desk to the side I was sitting on and perched himself on the edge of the desk. "Well, whatever it is, I'm sure we'll know more soon. Now, do me a favor. Stop cooping yourself up in here and go out for a walk. Maybe go and visit your parents' grave. I'm sure they'd love to see you again."

I looked up at Polnareff and asked, "You're not going to take no for an answer, are you?"

"Absolutely not."

I rolled my eyes and pushed myself out of my chair. "Okay, fine. You win."

"That's what I thought," the Frenchman said with a soft chuckle as he followed me out of the office to the front door to see me off.

On the way to the cemetery, I stopped off at the flower shop to pick up a lovely bunch of flowers for me to lie on the grave.

With the bunch of flowers in hand, I made it to the cemetery. The first time I came here, I was with Polnareff, and we had to look around the cemetery to be able to find my mom and dad's grave. I now have the entire walk to the grave committed to memory since I've been making regular visits every week, I guess I'm just making up for lost time.

When we first saw the grave, it was covered in weeds – which was expected seeing as no one has been to visit the grave since I moved away from Morioh. Polnareff and I worked hard to fix the grave up and I used some of my parent's inheritance to buy them a proper gravestone.

Due to my regular visits to the grave, Polnareff decided to build a bench at the graveside so I can sit next to the grave and talk to my parents.

When I neared the grave, I saw someone standing at the foot of my mom and dad's grave. I instantly stopped in my tracks the moment I caught a glimpse of long red hair tied back into a ponytail.

My breath hitched in my throat as I recalled the vision I had back in Copenhagen, specifically, the voice I heard in my vision, and tears started to fill my eyes.

"Nori?"

Nori looked up from the grave with wide eyes and turned to look in my direction. We looked at each other for a while, as if we couldn't believe that we were standing before one another.

"Y/N!" Nori gasped as he lunged towards me and pulled me in a tight embrace.

I was too shocked to move and wrap my arms around him, so I remained frozen on the spot.

"I can't believe it's really you!" The redhead pulled away from giving me a hug and held me at arms length as he took in my features. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same," I responded.

"Jotaro and I are here on a mission."

"Jotaro's here to?" I felt my heart flutter at the mention of the delinquent's name, knowing Nori wasn't here in Morioh on his own.

"Yeah, he's back at the hotel writing a report for the Speedwagon Foundation. Damn, I can't believe you're actually here. I had a feeling that you would have been here all along."

"I've only been here just under a year," I said.

"Just under a year?" He raised an eyebrow, "but my mom and dad told me you left 5 years ago. Where have you been if you've only been here for just under a year?"

"I've been traveling across Europe with Polnareff. We've been looking for the Stand Arrow, and our search brought us here," I explained.

"You're looking for the Stand Arrow?" Nori raised an eyebrow. "Funnily enough, the mission we're on at the moment is finding some criminals that are Stand users, but they got their Stands from an arrow like the one you were shot with."

"Wait, seriously?" My eyes widened at the news. So we were definitely on the right track if there are Stand users that got their Stands from from Stand Arrow here in Morioh. "I wander if they're related to him..." I thought out loud.

"Who?"

"Huh? Oh, we've been tracking down someone who was seen with the arrow in Europe. We believe he was the one that shot someone with the arrow and sent them after us. We tracked him all the way down to Copenhagen airport and then I got a vision from Scarlet Phantom to say that we needed to come to Morioh."

"We? So that means Polnareff is here too?"

I nodded. "Yeah. We not long bought a house a few blocks away from where you and I grew up."

Nori nodded and looked at his wristwatch. "Look, I've gotta dash. I need to get back to Jotaro," he said as he dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small notepad and pen. "Write your address in here. Jotaro and I will come over later to talk about what you've learned about this guy. There may be a chance he could be linked to the criminals we're looking for."

I took the notepad and pen from him and started writing down my address before glancing up slightly and noticing a golden wedding band on Nori's ring finger, which made me stop writing the first line of my address.

I felt tears build up in my eyes. 'So he really has moved on...' I thought to myself as I felt my heart sink to the pits of my stomach.

Nori noticed my sudden change in mood and asked, "Are you okay?"

I looked up to meet his purple gaze as a tear rolled down my cheek, not able to say anything.

Without another word, I pushed the notepad and pen into his chest without writing down the rest of my address and walked away from the redhead, leaving him at my parents' graveside, calling after me.