Diamonds Burn Gold

Chapter 20: The Great Rohan Kishibe, part 2

The next day, Koichi couldn't help but that something seemed strange about him. He seemed sluggish and tired throughout the entire day. He noticed that he was struggling with picking up simple things, for example, the way he carried his school bag made it seem like he was carrying around a bowling ball. He also observed the change in his walk he seemed to be dragging his feet as if his shoes were weighted.

"Oh man...why do my shoes and bag feel heavier than usual today?" He asked himself as he sat on his knees. He looked up and was slightly confused when he realised that he had arrived at the house he had gone into the other day. How very strange. Somehow he had ended up walking all the way back to Rohan's house. He took a closer look and saw that the door was open. Koichi liked to drop in and thank him for being such a great host yesterday, but he'll late for school. He probably shouldn't. Being an artist, Rohan's probably still asleep. It be rude to just barge in. Koichi shouldn't. He needs to leave him alone. Against what his mind was telling him, Koichi wasn't in control of his body and ended up walking right on in. Shutting the door behind him.

"You saw that? Right guys?" Josuke asked his friends.

"Yeah." They said.

"Spying feels wrong, but it's out of character for Koichi to act so weird and ditch school. What the hell is he doing?" Josuke pondered.

"Well, I wanna know who in the world lives here? I mean there's no way he's meeting up with some chick right?" Okuyasu asked.

"Somehow I doubt that." Saya said as the three stood around watching the house. The odd-eyed girl started walking towards the house. "Well then boys, lets not just stand around."

"Ah-Saya, wait!" Josuke called out, following after her with Okuyasu. The three walked up to the front door and Josuke rung the bell. When there was no answer, he rings it a second time, but there was still no answer. Okuyasu walked around the front porch trying to peek in through the windows. On the top floor, a pair of eyes stared down at the three.

"Interesting. Unless I'm mistaken, that's Shining Diamond's Josuke Higashikata, The Hand's Okuyasu Nijimura, and Blazing Gold's Saya Yukimori. But this doesn't make any sense, why would they show up at my doorstep out of the blue? There's just no way Koichi would've mentioned me to the three of them. Huh, what's going on here?" Rohan asked as he turned to Koichi, only to find that the boy had slipped away.

Koichi dragged himself through the floor as he desperately tried to get to the front door and get his friends to help him. "I don't know how, but it's Josuke, Saya, and Okuyasu. When I didn't show up to school they must've noticed I was missing and track me down." Koichi said as he toppled down the stairs and struggled to crawl his way over to the door.

"Alright, since there's no one answering the door," Saya said as she lifted her leg. "I'll just kick it down."

"Hold on Saya." Josuke said, grabbing the girl's arm, making her look back at him. "Huh, why? I'm getting a bad feeling about this place and who knows what's happening to Koichi." She told him.

*Click*

The front door opened and out came Koichi, safe and sound, and smiling at them. "Oh, hey. This is such a surprise, what are you three doing here and for that matter, how'd you even find me?" Koichi asked. The three teens looked at each other in confusion. Meanwhile, Rohan sat at his desk, drawing the new pages for his next manuscript without much care. "I'll let it be. Josuke, Saya and Okuyasu don't really interest me at the moment. For now, I'll finish up the last two pages for next week and then I'll procure even more material from Koichi." Rohan said with a chuckle. "I can hardly contain myself."