Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. December 21st, 1988.
While Joseph was busy buying a car, the other four companions were waiting on sofas in the reception. Polnareff was flirting without any embarrassment with a client at his side. After a while, Joseph came over and smashed his white hair with the new car contract to shut him up.
"Polnareff. I see you're very busy-
- Mr. Joestar!
- -but we have to go.
- Don't touch my hair! Do you know how long it takes me to do my hair??
- No, and I don't care. You take the wheel.
- Okay. Goodbye miss!... I don't understand, Mr. Joestar, why buy a luxury car? There is only sand here! Shouldn't we rather take a 4x4?
- You will quickly understand."
Sitting in the back of the car between Jotaro and Kakyoin, (Y/N) was far too busy admiring the huge villas through the window to notice the redhead's concern next to her. Jotaro was the one to ask:
"What is it, Kakyoin?
- Well... I know that since we're out in the open, we'd see right away if we're being followed. But despite that, I feel observed, I keep on turning around.
- Yeah, we have enough to become paranoid", Polnareff added.
"I was thinking about the route to take", Joseph said.
"Can we put on some music?" (Y/N) asked in a small, innocent voice.
Despite Jotaro's grunts, the two men in the front turned on the radio willingly. Having barely heard two notes, Polnareff and (Y/N) began to sing at the same time:
"We're no strangers to loooove~
- Oh have mercy..." Kakyoin said, without however being able to prevent himself from smiling."
"You know the rules and so do I!
- Yare, yare... What did you say about the itinerary, old man?
- 100 km from here, there is a village called Yarpline. We could get there, but with the mountains and the desert it's complicated, so we'd have to buy a Cessna! We're not putting anyone else in danger, but we're still flying!
- I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling, gotta make you understand!"
Polnareff and (Y/N) took a deep breath. Before yelling:
"NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP! NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOOOOWN!"
Without waiting, Kakyoin placed a hand over the young woman's mouth to silence her. She continued to sing, laughing, her voice muffled behind the boy's hand. He had to make every effort in the world to remain serious.
"Thank you Kakyoin," Jotaro said, glancing sideways at the Italian who was trying to get rid of her boyfriend's hand.
"So the Cessna!"Joseph resumed. "I think that's a good idea. Especially since I could fly it!
- Getting into a Cessna whose pilot has already crashed three times doesn't thrill me a lot," Jotaro grunted.
Joseph turned his head to glare at him. Before turning up the sound of the music just to annoy him in return. Jotaro glared right back at him.
"Anyway," the old Joestar continued, "we must go to Yarpline already. We can cross the desert, it takes a day on a camel.
- Seriously?" Polnareff said, suddenly stopping singing. "The Cessna is fine, but the camel is not my thing!"
Joseph chuckled.
"Count on me. I know about it. I will explain to you. Relax and trust me."
It wasn't reassuring at all.
"So you want camels?" the merchant asked, a few minutes later. "It's up to you, but it's expensive, you know! And there's the maintenance...
- We need five, it's a matter of life or death. I'll trade them for the car, okay?
- What? What generosity!
- Don't exaggerate Mr. Joestar, we just bought it!" Polnareff cried.
"In your opinion, why did I buy this car? It is rather a 4x4 that we would have needed. But they weren't going to accept a check here. And the cash is suspicious. In such a place, the simplest thing is barter! I was about to forget!
- Yes?" the merchant said.
"We're paying enough to have your water supply, don't we? It is the most important thing in the desert.
- Compared to the price of the car, it's nothing. You really are out of the ordinary.
- Let's get ready! Crossing a desert is dangerous! Let's be focused!"
Polnareff approached a camel which breathed out in his face. He had tears in his eyes as the smell was foul. He took his deodorant out of his bag to spray the poor animal.
"That stinks! How are we supposed to ride it, Mr. Joestar? They are three meters high!
- To ride a camel, you must first make it sit down", Joseph replied, pulling on the reins of his camel to try to make it sit down. "Once it is seated, you can climb on it. First you have to... do it... sit down! Hey... Wait a bit! It's going to sit down!"
Joseph was struggling to make his camel sit down but the animal wasn't moving.
"Come on, sit down! Are you going to sit down?! Well, will you obey me?!
- Uh... You've really already done it?" Polnareff asked.
- I saw Lawrence of Arabia and it's super long! Believe me, I know how it's done! Even though I fell asleep watching it twice...
- But... It's a movie! I can't believe it, you've never actually ridden one!"
The camel drooled over Joseph's face as he was still struggling. After a short pause, the time to realize what had just happened, the old man turned to the others, a broad smile on his lips.
"Did you know it could be used as sunscreen?"
He burst out laughing and (Y/N) laughed with him. The other boys weren't laughing at all.
"Wait Mr. Joestar," she said, "let me try.
- Have you seen the movie (Y/N)?
- Haha, no. But I think I understand."
She took an apple out of her bag and showed it to the animal who paid great attention to her. While pulling gently on the halter, she bent down with the fruit and the camel did the same.
"And... There you go!
- Ha! But that's cheating!
- You didn't specify the rules Mr. Joestar!" she exclaimed, laughing.
"It doesn't matter", Jotaro cut them off, taking an apple out of his bag to copy the young woman. "Let's go."
Perched on top of her camel, (Y/N) was feeling particularly powerful. Joseph told them,
"Unlike horses, they walk with both legs on the same side simultaneously. So it rocks. Just get on the beat. Watch me do it! Wait... Wait, not so fast! Listen to me!! Not that way!!"
Joseph fell off his mount and (Y/N) restrained herself from bursting into laughter. She was making her camel walk without any problem, delighted to have a docile animal unlike the old man. He groaned and rubbed his back, before trying to climb back up. It took him a good half hour before he understood how to direct the animal.
"Heh... At last! The crossing of the desert awaits us!
- It was time", Kakyoin sighed, a scarf on his head to protect his pale skin from the sun.
After a few long minutes of traveling, the young man expressed his fears once again.
"I still have the strange feeling that someone is watching us...
- Kakyoin, wouldn't you be a little too nervous?" Polnareff asked, turning to check the surroundings. "We're erasing our traces with leaves, and we can see for dozens of miles around, we would have seen it if-
- Me too", Jotaro cut him off, "I've been feeling a presence for a while now.
- Wanna take a look, Jotaro?" his grandfather asked.
He handed him binoculars and Jotaro scanned the horizon with Star Platinum.
"Anything to report?
- No, I don't see anything. Nothing at all... There is something wrong.
- Alright, shall we leave?" Polnareff asked after drinking from his flask.
"Yes," Joseph replied. "Let's go as far as possible. We will stop to pitch the tent at sunset.
- That's the problem, Mr. Joestar", (Y/N) interrupted, making wind with her hand. "The Sun hasn't moved for a good hour.
- Eh? Well that's true..." the old man replied, before glancing at his pocket watch. "It's 8 p.m.! Jotaro, what time is on your watch?
- 8:10 p.m.
- Why the hell doesn't the sun set?
- And how hot it is!" Polnareff exclaimed. "It's 50 degrees! No, it's rising! 60 degrees!
- I don't want to be a killjoy", (Y/N) cut them off, "but it's clearly a Stand attack.
- Mmm. It would be wise to listen to you this time", Kakyoin admitted, nodding. "Let's find refuge behind a rock!"
They all leapt from their mounts and rushed for cover in a rock's shadow. Kakyoin gritted his teeth, beads of sweat beading on his forehead.
"It was right in front of us and we didn't see anything...
- They want to kill us by grilling us all day-... Well, all night!" Polnareff exclaimed. "Are they taking us for sausages?
- Oh, they don't need to make this last all night," Joseph replied. "Staying thirty minutes in a sauna is already not without risks.
- So what do we do?" the young woman asked.
"Damn it's 70 degrees now!
- The User can't be far," Jotaro said in a weaker voice than usual. "Let's find them.
- Considering the Sun's power, they have to be very close", (Y/N) added, panting.
The camels collapsed under the heat. They wouldn't last much longer.
"We can't just stand idly by, I'll take a look with my Hierophant Green. I want to know how far away the Stand is, maybe it will help us find its User!"
The young man's Stand flew away to get as close as possible to the Sun. But the closer he got, the more he put himself in danger. Jotaro grabbed his wrist.
"Stop it's getting hot.
- Noriaki, bring it back!" (Y/N) asked him, grabbing his other wrist.
"He wants to attack us", the redhead replied, "I'm going to get ahead of him!"
Hierophant Green sent an Emerald Splash but received all the debris from it. Kakyoin's body was suddenly covered in cuts and he fell to the ground. Just in time to avoid the molten debris falling on them. And which killed the camel in one fell swoop. And which made all the water supplies explode. Using SIlver Chariot, Polnareff prevented the debris from approaching his friends. Jotaro brought out Star Platinum and shouted,
"I'm going to dig a hole! Take refuge in it!"
They didn't need to be asked. Completely exhausted, they all laid down in the sand, protected by the rest of the rock above them. They barely had the strength to move a finger.
"How are you feeling, Noriaki?" (Y/N) asked, passing a hand over the boy's forehead to loosen a sticky strand.
"I was casting Emerald Splash, it protected me. It's just a few scratches. On the other hand, how hot it is... it's going to drive me crazy.
- Did you see how precise the attack was?" Polnareff exclaimed. "The enemy is bound to be watching us! Where is the User hiding?
- Don't talk so loud you bunch of idiots", (Y/N) cut him off, "you'll have us spotted. Let's calm down, get a grip of ourselves and look around."
They had too much trouble breathing, the heat was making their heads spin. Especially Kakyoin, whose open wounds brought tears to his eyes. (Y/N) gave him a worried look, but she was helpless nonetheless. Joseph tried to examine the horizon with his binoculars, but they exploded.
"Ugh! Son of a bitch! Where is he to be able to watch us so closely? Is he invisible or what?"
Kakyoin laid down entirely on the ground, in pain. (Y/N) frowned, gently running her fingers through his red hair.
"Hold on, we'll find a solution.
- I think I'm going to die...
- I assure you not."
It was not his time, she knew that very well. He laughed, for no apparent reason.
"What is it Kakyoin?" Joseph asked, panicking.
The boy kept laughing, unable to stop.
"Hey, Kakyoin? What makes you laugh? You're okay? Get yourself together!
- It's the effect of the heat", (Y/N) answered, stroking the boy's hair. "We're all going to go crazy if we stay here."
Suddenly, Jotaro started laughing too. It was much rarer. (Y/N) stared at him, speechless. Before being herself taken with a fit of laughter, followed very quickly by Polnareff. Joseph panicked.
"You're not all going to get into it! Oh, that can't be true... I'm the only one still lucid... Jotaro, pull yourself together! Hold on!" he cried, shaking his grandson by the collar.
"Don't get us wrong, Mr. Joestar", (Y/N) said, wiping a tear of laughter from the corner of her eye. "Look at the rock over there!
- We could hide behind it, couldn't we?" Kakyoin added.
"What do you mean?
- Now look at the one on the other side. In front of it. Didn't you notice? These two rocks are perfectly symmetrical! Even the shadow is reversed. Which means...
- What a dumb-dumb!" Polnareff exclaimed, laughing.
"Move over, you're on the way, old man."
Face now closed, Jotaro pushed his way out of their hiding place. Star Platinum grabbed a stone from the ground and threw it at full speed towards one of the rocks. The horizon shattered like a window, revealing the enemy's stratagem: a mirror.
"A hole in the void?" Joseph cried.
"Yare yare, you make me ashamed, old man. Well, it might be the heat that made you lose your senses. I find it hard to believe that the same blood runs through our veins."
Night suddenly fell, indicating that the enemy Stand was knocked out. Everyone left the hiding place, except Joseph who remained on all fours on the ground without understanding what had just happened.
"Are you planning to come out of your hole one day?"
The old man sat up, the incomprehension still clear in his eyes. He went to examine the mirror and Polnareff, Kakyoin and (Y/N) couldn't help but let out a small laugh.
"Even if it was hot, once we understood the thing, it's just pathetic," Jotaro said.
"Come on, let's go back on our way", Kakyoin said.
"Not before treating your wounds, Noriaki. And then the nights are cold in the desert. Let's not take the road now, it's too dangerous. Let's spend the night here."
The boys nodded before starting to set up camp while the young woman took care of dressing her boyfriend's wounds. He looked exhausted. In fact, they all were. The repercussions of the trip were beginning to be felt. After dipping a cotton ball in alcohol, she patted the sores on the boy's forehead. Kakyoin gritted his teeth, but his violet eyes were admiring the smallest details of the teenager in front of him. The stars were lighting up her face, and from this close, he had no trouble examining her fine Italian features. After a moment, she noticed his little game. She met his gaze, smiling, before focusing back on his wounds.
"You're enjoying the view, ain't you?
- Mm-mmh. I was telling myself that you couldn't imagine how much I want to paint you with the stars right now.
- Well, someone's in a romantic mood tonight.
- Every night, right?
- Ugh, go do that somewhere else", Jotaro growled.
"Are you jealous Jojo?" Polnareff asked, a smirk plastered on his lips. "Do you want me to say words of love to you too? Oh la la Jotaro, your eyes are as blue and deep as the ocean, I could drown in them!"
Everyone burst out laughing, except for Jotaro, who lowered his hat over his face, groaning. The stars were lighting up his face too, weren't they?