The boat had been odd upon boarding it. The many surviving sailors and the crusaders couldn't find anyone aboard. How was the ship moving with no crew or captain?
The ship was old and rusted, rough around the edges with light fog polluting the air. The floor was an old ugly green and the walls were white. At least a boat had sailed by at all.
Diana was behind Joseph, Kakyoin, Jotaro, and Polnareff inspecting the machinery. There was no crew or captain but yet, all the machinery was functioning. Diana knew many of the stand users her father was sending their way, but this...she wasn't sure if a stand user was coming their way or not. A theory drifted its way into her mind however. No...it was stupid.
Her thinking was interrupted by Anne calling them over into a hallway. A large caged orangutan. It was brown and stupid looking. Stupid monke, it looked so helpless that Diana got the urge to kill it.
Dammit, He's wearing off on me...a killer drive for power, that's not what I want. I need to cool my jets, I'm not my father even though I love that bastard to death.
Upon leaving the room, a crane came down swiftly and impaled a sailor straight through the head. It took strength to refrain from a chuckle. Her theory had been correct, that was why she was struggling the restrain her laugh. The boat was the stand and the orangutan was the stand user.
She told Adelio to stick close to her. The monkey was most likely dumb enough to not recognize Diana and her status meaning they were its targets as well. Ajna however was a bit more helpful in pushing the Crusaders along to discover the truth. It was funny watching them theorize what the problem might have been.
Kakyoin had used his Hierophant Green to search the entire ship and found no life besides the fat brown brute in the cage. Jotaro had gone to explore the ship some more. Polnareff and Ajna were joking around in the sunset. Those two were going to be good friends. Diana almost felt bad for having to kill all of them. Adelio and Kakyoin were talking sitting crisscrossed on the middle of the deck. They had all let their guard down and it would cost them.
Kakyoin was interested in the youth that spoke to him. His actions were that of his looks, but his words were spoken with age. Clearly the kid was older then he was letting on, but how would that make sense?...Of course DIO was a vampire and Kak new that much. Vampires reject their humanity in exchange for unnatural abilities and something like immortality. Their only downfall, the sun.
"Adelio, how old are you?" His voice was friendly and kept a warm essence in it.
"Oh, I'm about fifty years old!" Shock. The kid was thirty-three years older then him. Kakyoin paid close attention to what Adelio had to say from that point on. He had probably seen things that Kak hadn't, but he was always willing to learn a thing or two from people.
Suddenly, the dock of the boat absorbed everyone on it! Their bodies weren't being taken apart, yet at least, but they had been phased into the now squishy boat! T-the boat was a stand?! What a shock!
Before the incident occurred, Polnareff sensed something was wrong. The moment he felt his body descend, he grabbed Ajna and threw her above him as he slowly and painfully phased with the boat.
"W-watch out-," he hoarsely got out. Ajna didn't want to show them quite yet, but she didn't have a choice really. She spread her graceful, purple shined, black, wings and rose into the air, feeling the wind on her skin. She hadn't flown in a while, but techniques soon flooded back to her and she remembered just what to do.
H-he saved me...he risked his life to save mine and now he's the one suffering...I'm so sorry Jean.
She knew she wasn't supposed to help the enemy, but...he was her friend. Slowly descending but keeping her rhythmic flapping going, she grabbed his hand and tried to pull up. He winced slightly and continued to be eaten by the boat.
A few minutes passed and the boat began to melt down completely. Clearly the orangutan had been killed by Jotaro and the stand was slowly fading away. Life boats were pulled out, and they were boarded quickly.
Adrift on the gray waters once more, the waves rocked them gently. The seating arrangement was the same except for Kakyoin who was sitting across from Ajna and Polnareff. Would they ever reach Singapore.
The rafts were a good distance from each other. It was a good distance because the conversations happening on the other rafts couldn't be heard giving Ajna the perfect time to thank Polnareff.
The stars in the sky brought out personality and emotion to the dark blue sky. Night was upon them and no doubt it would be cold. The sloshing of water crashing into each other made for a good noise to sleep too however. Getting to sleep when their was a reasonable temperature was a good idea, even if it meant waking up in the middle of the night. At least some amount of sleep would have been gained.
"I'm going to take a nap, it's been a long day." Kakyoin crossed his arms, sunk back into the raft in a comfortable position, and closed his eyes. Ajna and Polnareff stared down at their feet for the most part until they both at the same time noticed Kakyoin was asleep.
"I'm sor-."
"Than-."
They both spoke with unison and chuckled briefly afterwards, a small smile on both of their faces.
"I'm sorry for manhandling you like I did earlier," Polnareff spoke up.
Was he seriously apologizing? If it wasn't for him, Ajna would have been stuck in the same position, getting eaten by a damn boat! There was no way she was going to let the big lug apologize.
"Hey, no. You don't get to apologize. You saved me back there! I owe you one."
Polnareff's eyes met with hers and a bigger smile formed across his face. The way she made him feel...her red eyes were gorgeous, he had never seen anything like them. They were like two shining rubies, perfectly shaped and smoothed over with determination and softness at the same time. He looked back down at his feet.
Why the hell not? Ajna thought as she looked around making sure the coast was clear. Nobody was watching and she needed to raise Pol's spirits. He clearly was still angry at himself for doing that to her. She placed a hand on his back and rubbed it in a comforting manner. His head raised at the sudden feeling of a hand in his back. She brought him into a close hug causing his face to go red. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around her, trying not to seem like he had intentions, which he didn't for the meantime.
The two of them embraced the warm moment, but only briefly. The others would be looking out for the other rafts floating near them to make sure everyone was okay. After the quick hug, Ajna patted him gently on the hair, and dozed off to sleep.
Upon arriving in Singapore, finding a hotel was the main objective. The sun was shining in the now blue and happy sky with puffy white clouds. There were lots of civilians minding their own business, except for a police officer.
"Alright, well finding a hotel can't be that hard, they're usually big." Diana facepalmed at the utter stupidity of the group. And they wanted to defeat DIO...
A police officer approached them and told Polnareff that he had to pay five hundred Singapore dollars for littering. Five hundred Singapore dollars was about forty thousand yen. The only problem, nobody knew what the hell the officer was talking about until they took a good look at Polnareff's luggage that had the appearance of a trash bag.
Even Diana couldn't keep herself from giggling a bit at the officer's mistake. In this chuckling, heads turned to look at Anne who was still following them. Wasn't the brat supposed to be meeting up with her father? No matter, that wasn't Diana's problem.
Joseph checked in at a large hotel. It looked really busy meaning the rooms probably wouldn't be next to each other. It was too good to be true, Diana outdoor easily pick them off one by one here. She'd hope to start with Jotaro and get the strongest out of the way.
"Avdol and I will share a room," Joseph pointed with his thumb to himself and Avdol.
"Jotaro and I will share a room, since we're both students," the red head spoke with Jotaro standing with his usual tough guy face next to him.
"Adelio and I will share one," Diana spoke up placing both hands on her son's shoulders. He was only looking about the age of ten, but he was growing quickly and she could tell by the feel of his shoulders that his build would be big like his father's. Pride sparkled in her eyes as she looked down at him. He sensed it and gave a small grin, happy to not be a disappointment to his mother.
"That leaves you three..." Joseph stared awkwardly at Polnareff, Anne, and Ajna.
"You're joking! Like I'd room with him!" Anne complained, of course she wasn't going to make things easy for anyone. Poor Jean Pierre was so innocent yet so guilty.
Joseph sighed and rubbed his head with a look of exhaustion. Money or pride? Apparently pride was going to win this round.
"I'll take two more rooms..."
Everyone went to their own rooms to settle in for the time being. It had been an exhausting day and the plan was to meet up in Avdol and Joseph's room in fifteen minutes. Diana needed to think of something and fast.
She opened the door to her hotel room and saw a big window straight ahead, a singular queen sized bed, a tv, and other hotel accessories that you would find in a room. Diana sat down and sighed, relaxing at the feel of a soft bed instead of a cold raft adrift on the sea. Her body was still playing tricks on her and the motion of going over waves was still burned into her brain. Once she sat down, everything began to calm and she patted next her.
Adelio sat down next to her and gave her a bear hug. Diana ran her fingers through his sandy blond hair and heard him whimper. This whole imposter mission was really getting to him. Adelio couldn't just kill because he was told to, and if he did, it would be out of respect and honor for his master. This mission wasn't his, it was his mother's. He would kill because his mom would need him to, that was the only reason blood would be shed.
"Hey, I know it's rough. You don't have to kill, let mom do the hard work, okay?"
"It's not that...I-I made a friend and I don't want to lose him."
"Kakyoin?"
Adelio slowly nodded solemnly. The poor lad...he had no friends and was taught he needed none. Depending on others only led to pain. Nobody lasted forever, and friends caused pain which was avoidable, so why trouble yourself with beings that you would outlive by thousands of years? Emotions were to be kept in check and nothing else.
"Even though I look little and act like it at times, he still treats me like a normal human and actually listens to me when I talk. Y-yes...I know I'm not a normal human and I don't deserve to be treated like one. I'm half pillar man half vampire, one weird combo, but..."
"I'm listening. I don't want you thinking you're in trouble, I'm with you all the way little one, no matter what," Diana rubbed his back, reassuring him.
"But it's nice...being treated normal for once, not like some god. My papa, he was a god, the best kind. Honorable, respectful, strong, from what you say, he was good looking, I could go on and on. I'll never match up to who he was no matter how hard I try. I...I let my emotions take over and I make the wrong choices."
Adelio was gripping his hands tightly together and stood up. Anger was rushing through his body like sparking flames, burning him up inside at the disappointment he thought himself to be. With angry violet eyes, he punched the mirror with might, stifling a scream of rage. His fist was bloody and cut with small shards of glass impaled into them.
Diana stood up, shocked at her son's outburst. She witnessed her son pickup a large shard of glass and hold it to his shoulder. Smoothly, swiftly, and deeply, he slid it across his shoulder, cutting deep into his flesh. Dark blood spilled from the wound and Adelio let his anger sink back into a spark instead of a flame. He didn't flinch at the sharp cutting pain that was stinging.
"Adelio. Put. The shard. Down."
He realized what he'd done. He had completely lost control. Guilt and regret replaced his burning fire of rage.
"I'm sorry, let me clean this up." He began picking up the shards of glass, cutting his hands even more. He threw them in the trash and went to the bathroom to clean the blood from his shoulder.
This is going to kill him inside...maybe...maybe I don't have to kill Kakyoin right away.
Upon realizing that the fifteen minutes were up, Diana and Adelio headed down to the room. Everyone was there except for Polnareff. Probably running late like the big oaf he was.
Adelio stayed close to his mother, not bothering to talk to Kakyoin knowing that if he got close to him, he'd lose him. Kakyoin kept giving worried glances over to him, especially when he noticed a small splotch of blood that was dripping down his arm from the spot he had missed during cleaning.
Eventually, Polnareff staggered into the room, leaning against the wall. His eyes were exhausted and blood was gushing from wounds around his body. "I'm so tired..." he managed to hoarsely choke out. Ajna sighed and went to grab the first aid kit.
Ajna and Polnareff went into the bathroom with the door open so she could clean up the blood. It was odd cleaning wounds that didn't heal immediately. She was gifted with the ability of quick healing.
Jean kept whining when she rubbed the rubbing alcohol on his many wounds and she giggled, and played their little game. She dug the rag deeper into one of his wounds pressing her fingernails into it as well, enjoying his cries. He bit his lip and whimpered instead, showing that it really did hurt quite bit. The first squeals hadn't been as bad as he complained, but when he hid his complaints and whimpered instead, Ajna realized she was letting herself go too far.
"H-hey I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you-"
"It's okay...I can handle it!" He regained his confidence immediately and Ajna was definitely more careful. The poor baby didn't do anything to deserve that, what the hell was wrong with her?
"Hey, I heard your room was trashed, you can bunk with me if you want."
"Thanks Ajna, you always seem to have my back."
The sun began to set and the sky began to melt from an icy blue into fiery colors of scarlet red, fiery orange, and lemon yellow. Everyone returned to their rooms for the night. Ajna hadn't visited her room actually. She had been wandering in the lobby, looking at all of the mortals. She enjoyed watching the weaklings babble and be idiotic.
When Ajna and Polnareff entered the room, they saw that unlike Joseph and Avdol's room, they had a singular queen sized bed. In an earlier conversation, Diana was telling Ajna about the incident with Kakyoin who was actually a stand user. Apparently the stand was called Yellow Temperance that allowed the user to mold his appearance to look like Kakyoin. Adelio was with Jotaro, Anne, and "Kakyoin" when Kakyoin slapped his coconut water out of his hands as a "joke". Adelio had already been pretty upset that day and he had had to cover it up, but at that point, he just turned around and went back to the hotel so he could cool down. Diana then explained about what had happened earlier by starting it off by saying "we were sitting on the bed..." "The bed", that's why Ajna had suspected that there was only bed.
For the meantime, Ajna would ignore the problem and get settled in. She didn't have much luggage, just some money, some bread, a small hairbrush, and the singular hair tie on her wrist. Once the two set their bags down, a second of silence passed.
Rushing forwards as fast as possible, Polnareff grabbed the nearest pillow and Ajna jumps over the bed grabbing the other. Thus, the hour long pillow fight began. Ajna was careful with Jean Pierre, but Polnareff showed no mercy. Somehow, the bed was still intact and the sheets were still on by a miracle.
After that the both of them were sweating and one at a time took a shower. While Polnareff was in the shower, Ajna looted the hotel drawers and found a snow white nightgown. What were real clothes like, she had never worn anything else besides the pillar woman clothes she was given.
She stripped off her clothes making her feel more bare then ever before and slid the white nightgown over her body. It felt soft and comforting... she felt secure and safe. Doing a little twirl in her pajamas, she giggled slightly.
Polnareff opened the shower door and stepped out in his white a blue vertically striped pajamas. His hair was still dry and up into its normal chest hat shape. Ajna didn't question it, she just assumed she'd never get to see him with his hair down. He saw Ajna in her nightgown and smiled. Jean went to the bed and took a single pillow from it, laying it on the floor and went to the cabinet to look for a blanket.
"What are you doing?" Ajna walked to his side.
"I'm looking for a blanket."
"Why? You're sleeping on the bed."
"Oh no no no, You're taking the bed, ma chère."
"I've slept on the floor before, I can do it again," complained Ajna, crossing her arms and leaning on a hip.
"So have I, please, take the bed, Ajna."
"Fine, we'll share the bed."
"I-,"
Ajna turned around and crawled into the bed, patting next to her. Polnareff was a bit uncomfortable with the situation. He knew he could keep to himself, but he was having second thoughts. He didn't want to continue the argument, so he slowly but surely lifted up the sheets on the right side and crawled into bed.
He felt a small tap on his shoulder and turned around to see half of Ajna's head. The rest of her was under the covers. Her eyes were gleaming and dreamy and she brought a hand up to Jean's head. Ajna patted him gently and sweetly on the hair.
"Night, Pol Pol!"
She turned around, and dozed off to sleep. Pol carefully turned back around with the cute nickname she had called him in the back of his head. "Pol Pol"... sleep overcame him.
Maybe in the middle of the night, Ajna felt something warm wrap around her waist. Her eyes opened, and realized she was in between Polnareff's arms. She smiled faintly and pressed her back up against his chest, cuddling closer.
Several more hours passed and the morning sunshine passed through the window, lighting up the room. Ajna was already awake, stuck in Jean Pierre's arms. She chuckled lightly as he hadn't sensed that he had had subconsciously wrapped his arms around her in his sleep. His chest was bulky, he clearly had been training for quite some time for it to be like that.
Sleepily groaning, Pol slowly opened his blue eyes groggily. He saw Ajna in his arms and didn't bother to process the situation, so he held her closer. Ajna was trying not to laugh as the big baby cuddled her like a teddy bear.
"Jean."
"Hm...?"
"S-shit!" He quickly released her and pushed himself to the corner of the bed in a panic. Dying that day was not a part of the plan, but it was about to be! Ajna sat up, relaxed and calm with a sweet smile.
"I had no idea I-," he shut his mouth and thought of something not say, but he was at a loss for words.
"It's all good, if I didn't love you I'd have already killed you!"
"W-wait, you love me?" A crimson blush was dusted across his face at the words he had always wished to hear.
"Of course I love you! You're a big baby, but I love you, Pol Pol."
"I...I love you too." Ajna threw herself onto Polnareff hugging him. After a few minutes of enjoyable cuddles, Ajna gave a glance at the clock, it read 8:00 a.m.
"8:00??!! Jean we were supposed to meet up with the others at 7:30!"
Ajna grabbed her clothes that were on the floor and rushed into the bathroom to get ready. While Ajna was in the bathroom, Polnareff rushed to get his clothes on. The two of them ran for the door and ran down the hallway to the elevator. They made their way to the lobby and the rest of the Crusaders.
"Polnareff, what took so long?" Mr. Joestar was pretty unhappy. Five minutes of time had been wasted for what?
"I slept in by accident," Polnareff took the blame. Nobody knew that Polnareff had stayed with Ajna that night except for Kakyoin who went to check up on everyone who was late. Kakyoin saw the incident of the other night and intended to tease Polnareff about it just a bit.
"Yare yare daze..."
Walking out of the hotel, Ajna walked next to Polnareff. She grabbed his hand and held it in her own. Diana caught sight of this and sighed to herself.
And I told them not to get attached...