Expression

Chapter Two

The first thing Noriaki Kakyoin had felt upon seeing Jotaro's face had been relief, a sense of joy that there was something so familiar and comforting, that he wasn't alone wherever he was, that someone so dear to him was here with him, by his side, staring at him as he were all that mattered in the world.

The second thing he felt was a soul-crushing fear. He had died; if JoJo was here too, then he must also be dead. His final Emerald Splash had failed in its mission, and his closest friend, the person he cared the most for in the world, was dead because of it.

Only when Jotaro assured him that he was alive did his mind finally calm. He didn't know how it was possible for him to be back in the world of the living, but if it meant that he could once again see Jotaro Kujo, he was infinitely grateful. He would have to repay a debt to whoever had done this, but he couldn't help but feel that it would go unrepaid. As much as he wanted to stay awake like this, even if just so he could be near JoJo, he couldn't help but feel as if he were soon to slip once again into oblivion.

The hand that clasped his was so warm, so comforting, so surprisingly soft. If he were only to feel one more thing for the rest of his time on Earth, it would be this. Until he'd met Jotaro, nobody had truly understood him. Sure, his parents cared about him, but it was a distant caring, one of duty. Nobody else had that sort of obligation to him, and he had always been different from them due to his stand, too different for them to understand. But Jotaro... he could understand Noriaki in a way that nobody had before. DIO had, to some extent, but only in the way that a chessmaster understands a pawn. Jotaro cared for him, had rescued him more than once. The bond the two shared was special to Noriaki. He never wanted to go back to a world where it didn't exist.

If he couldn't survive much longer, he wanted just one thing: to hear Jotaro speak to him personally, using his given name rather than his family one. Surely, after all this, it was merited. When JoJo finally called him "Noriaki," it was, he thought, the happiest he had ever felt. He hated every distance that existed between him and Jotaro Kujo, every stupid formality—this new closeness was bliss.

He could feel something tugging at him—or, rather, not something, but the nothingness from which he had just emerged. At least he had gotten to see JoJo again, to hold his hand, to hear him speaking his given name...

Jotaro Kujo was crying.

Jotaro Kujo, who rarely expressed any emotion stronger than a "yare yare daze," was crying .

He leant in closer to Noriaki, so close that Noriaki could feel his shuddering breaths against his own skin.

In a whisper so tender, so hesitant and shy, so—almost surprised at what he had to say, Jotaro Kujo told Noriaki Kakyoin than he loved him.

All within an instant, a million memories and feelings flared up within Noriaki. Rolling a cherry around on his tongue, hoping to catch JoJo's attention—hours spent while they travelled just staring at him—the nervousness every night they slept near each other, wondering if JoJo hated him—JoJo, JoJo, JoJo —happiness—anxiety—a thousand blushes—turning his eyes away whenever he was caught staring—longing, desire, for— JoJo.

Jotaro Kujo loved Noriaki Kakyoin, and Noriaki Kakyoin loved him back.

Noriaki gathered all the strength he had left. "JoJo, I..." he whispered, but before he could add the "love you," he was swallowed up by the blackness of a coma he was unlikely to escape.

As Jotaro Kujo watched DIO's body—his great-great-gransfather's body—turn to dust in the light of dawn, his celebration was tainted with the bitter edge of loss. This victory had come with a great cost. Avdol, Iggy, Noriaki... he would probably never speak to any of them ever again.

Avdol , having been swallowed up by the void, was nowhere even to be found. Iggy, although JoJo had restarted his heart, too, had been dead for longer than even Noriaki; not even half an hour more, and it would have been entirely impossible to resuscitate him. He was in a coma, too, but unlike Noriaki, hadn't even woken up before slipping into it.

And Noriaki... even the Speedwagon Foundation doctors had little hope of bringing him back. The chance, they said, was less than one percent. Not daring to hope, Jotaro had resigned himself to never speaking to him again.

What hurt the most was that Noriaki had never been able to finish what he had to say. He was stuck forever in this painful anticipation, as if the first half of the sentence had been said moments ago, and the second half was soon to follow.

He hadn't been skilled enough to save his ally, his friend, his love. He couldn't even bring him back for long enough to say what he wanted to. Jotaro Kujo was a worthless failure.

A few days later, Avdol was spotted at the bank of a river in the Alps. Not far from him was a pile of corpses, some almost fresh and some nothing more than bones that were practically dust, and plenty of rubble. He was weak, in desperate need of a blood transfusion, dehydrated, and starving, on the brink of death. He was rescued by a Speedwagon helicopter and brought back to a hospital in France, where Polnareff spent every minute by his side as he recovered. When he had finally regained enough strength to speak, he relayed his story. When he was swallowed up by the void, he found himself suspended in an empty, dark, formless world and not alone. There were items that Cream had swallowed up, and plenty of people, too—none of them alive.

Aside from the injuries obviously obtained from Vanilla Ice's stand, the corpses which hadn't completely decayed had all shown signs of dehydration and starvation. That is to say, they had all died because, trapped in this void dimension, there was nothing to sustain them. If he couldn't get out of this, Avdol knew that he would either die from dehydration or blood loss due to his wounds. Eventually, however, he found the contents of this void dumped to a lonely location in the Alps. Vanilla Ice, he knew, must have died, killed by one of the other Crusaders.

Still, he wasn't safe just yet. He was far from civilization, and badly injured. There was no way he could make it back on his own in time. He had to find a source of water and wait, hoping he would be found.

He had been spotted just in time, and it was days before Jotaro could get a break from Polnareff calling him just to talk about how glad he was.

It wasn't that it was a bad thing. He was glad that this great man had survived, and had someone to keep him company as his health returned. It's just that it reminded him all the more of his own pathetic failure, and his own wish to be able be by Noriaki's side as he gained strength. He did spend a lot of time by his side in the hospital, waiting for him to wake up, but unlike Avdol, Noriaki wasn't getting any better.

Even Iggy was getting better, and the Speedwagon doctors said that there was a good chance of him waking up. But every day, the prospects for Noriaki just got worse. All hope, all joy, had left Jotaro.