Bloody Golden Butterfly [JJBA Fanfiction] (Giorno x Jolyne)

58. You Don't Own Me

"I think being able to read a person like a book and write things in it is a lot cooler than a quick fix and a quick hit," little Jolyne said. "He'd make a great villain."

The little girl didn't understand why her uncle Josuke started laughing out loud while Rohan gave him a dirty look.

"Go away and buy juice for your niece," Rohan told him, making him leave the house.

Jolyne had been a little scared of Rohan when she first met him, but now she was fine with him. He told the best stories and drew the best pictures, plus he had the prettiest clothes. When Jolyne was older she wanted to wear clothes with her belly in the air like Rohan did.

"Are you sure you'd rather stay with me than Koichi? He's better at it than I am with children."

"Sure," Jolyne told him with distaste. "I don't like Koichi. My father loves him more than me, not that he loves me much to begin with. I'm a wimpy little girl and get in the way of all his missions, so he takes Koichi along."

"Jolyne, that's not..." Rohan didn't know where to start. He wasn't good at dealing with children. "Your father got you a famous artist as a nanny to help you with the drawing just like you asked. Do you know what it takes to get someone like me to do you a favor? Of course, your father adores you. What a thing to have. Would I be here if it weren't for his threats?"

"I thought you liked me," the girl said sadly.

"I do, but I have an image to maintain. Besides, being your babysitter is fine, but he also left me with Josuke."

Jolyne laughed at that. Just as she had stopped being afraid of him, she had also stopped believing he hated Josuke.

"About you being a girl... Well, that's what you are, but we can do something to make you look like a badass. Let's get you a tattoo."

He disappeared into the next room for a while (he liked the girl, but not enough to let her paint in his studio) and returned with some washable markers. Rohan picked up one of the papers and, in a few seconds, sketched a butterfly with a sword that Jolyne loved.

"I have nothing against you changing your style, if that's what you feel like, but I don't think you need to be stronger or look tougher to be just as brave as your father and your uncle are," Rohan told her as he began to masterfully draw on her arm. "The bravest person I ever met was a fifteen-year-old girl who liked to wear pink and wear dresses."

"Was she strong?" Jolyne asked curiously.

"Physically? Not really. Reimi wasn't particularly strong in that sense, but in other ways, she was very strong. I don't think many people would have been able to do what she did for me when I was younger than you."

He paused for a moment. He was used to creating gruesome stories and wasn't accustomed to softening them for anyone, but this time he would.

"A very bad man came into the house when she was taking care of me. Like I said before, Reimi wasn't very strong, but she was very brave." As he said that, he began to draw the sword that would make up the butterfly's body. "She was very scared. And she told me, 'Roh, from now on, you're not Roh anymore, you're the Great Rohan Kishibe, and you can't be afraid. You have to hide and escape when that man leaves.' And that's what I did, while she protected me and didn't say anything, even when she threw me out of the window so I could escape while that man... was being bad to her. That's why I didn't complain about the pain from the fall. Because since that day, I've tried to live as the Great Rohan Kishibe, as Reimi asked me to.

"You don't need to be anyone else but Jolyne Kujo. You're already tough enough."

The adult smiled and was discreet enough to pretend not to notice the girl's teary eyes. And she was mature enough to pretend not to notice how the story affected the manga artist.