Word Count: 2918

Looking out over the room, a worry was boiling in your gut.

After checking in, the old lady had escorted you all to your rooms one by one, yours being in between Jotaro's and Mr. Joestar's. Apparently this hotel only had one bedroom rooms, which unsettled you greatly, given the strange nature of it. No couples could stay in this place and you were all separated into the one bed rooms. It felt weird after three weeks of only sleeping with others, it gave you an unsafe feeling.

Walking over to the window, you opened it up, squinting as the fog that swarmed this town instantly started rolling into your room, making you close the window again. Not much you could see out there anyways.

A knocking on your door made you turn around, walking over and opening it to see Kakyoin standing there. "Jojo told me to check up on you." He smiled and you stood there like a flabbergasted fish for a second.

"Uh, yeah okay that makes sense." You eventually spoke, remembering what the delinquent said when you entered the hotel. "So, where is he?"

"He went down for Polnareff." Kakyoin hummed as he shrugged.

"Polnareff? Why is he down?"

"He went to the bathroom but none of us have heard him come back up. Jotaro found it suspicious."

Nodding a little in understanding, you then noticed Kakyoin looking expectantly looking at you. Realising he wanted you to follow, you did so and the redhead led you to the room one over, entering with you, revealing Joseph sitting in front of the tv.

"Still nothing?"

Looking up at Kakyoin's voice, the older man sighed and nodded. "I think I'm gonna fall asleep far before any image or noise manages to come on this screen."

"What were you trying to do?" You asked, walking over and looking at the tv while Hermit Purple retreated.

"I was trying to get information on the enemy that has to be somewhere in this town." The man sighed while starting to get up. Without thinking you offered your hand, still focused on the static tv, and Joseph looked at your hand with a little surprise before smiling softly, taking it and getting to his feet – though he kept most of his weight out of your hand.

"Guess we'll just have to keep our eyes open." You smiled at both men and they nodded.

"For now, let's wait for Jotaro and Polnareff to come back before making a plan." Kakyoin spoke.

And so wait you did.

- - - -

Bewildered, you were standing over the body of the old woman.

Just moments prior, the three of you left up in the room had been yelled down the stairs by Jotaro, coming running down only to see the aftermaths of a battle.

As you were looking down at her as it was though, it looked like Jotaro had properly killed her. Her skin was turned almost grey and it was that you trusted Jotaro when he told you she was nearly knocked out. If anyone else had said it, you'd have proclaimed her dead.

"Everyone, come outside."

Hearing the voice soft but clear, you walked into the other room to see the rest of the Crusaders standing by the entrance, making you walk over and squint your eyes at the setting sun.

"What on earth?" Gasping that out, Mr. Joestar looked around and you joined them, only for your eyes to widen as you gazed straight out at a massive graveyard. "We step out of the hotel and this place is..."

"A graveyard." Kakyoin remarked. "She used her Stand's fog to make this graveyard look like the town and the hotel?"

At his words however, you shook your head. "The town should still be nearby. There is only one in the nearby area according to the map and it wouldn't make sense to build exclusively a graveyard all the way out here."

"She made the town look alive and functional with her Stand." Jotaro grumbled before walking inside. A few minutes later, he came back out with the old lady tied up and under his arm.

Seeing this, Polnareff straightened up, undignified. "Y-You wanna take her with us? Are you serious?"

"Yeah." Jotaro shrugged while he put her down on the ground, unconscious. "We need to know how many more Stand users there are out there, what their powers are, where in Egypt Dio is hiding and what that bastard's Stand can do. And it's not like she can talk in this state."

"I guess you have a point." Polnareff hummed as he scratched his chin.

"Yeah. If we can get the hag to tell us, we might finally have the edge we need." Mr. Joestar chimed in.

Kakyoin shook his head. "I doubt she'll be willing to share that information."

"We just need to use Hermit Purple." Raising his hand, Joseph showed his Stand briefly flickering. "I'll project everything she's thinking onto a TV screen. So for that we have to find a working TV."

"Sounds like a plan." You smiled, getting a grin from the older man back.

"Let's get out of here!" Joseph called and all of you started walking through the graveyard, back to the town where you parked the car.

The sun was setting quickly and now you understood why you had been feeling so uneasy all this time, as the feeling in your gut worsened tenfold, now fully aware that you were walking through a graveyard in a foreign country, right as night was starting to set in.

After a few minutes the town came into sight, looking old and wasted away, the wood of the buildings rotten and decayed. Yet still, the setting sun gave a much needed relief. That was- until the sound of an engine revving sounded out.

Right in front of you, Hol Horse sped off in the car.

"Wh- Hol Horse!" Polnareff screamed out and sprinted after the car.

"That's our car!" Kakyoin called out, sprinting as well though he quickly realised it was futile and stopped, watching the stolen car get smaller and smaller while Polnareff only gave up once he was in the middle of the small town.

"Oh no.." You whined softly, watching your only mode of transportation leave without you all. "Uhm, what are we gonna do?" You asked softly, only to feel a hand placed on your shoulder.

"It'll be okay." Mr. Joestar spoke, determined but gentle, a small grunt of confirmation coming from your right where Jotaro stood.

"We lost him." Polnareff came panting into the conversation, Kakyoin beside him looking much more composed.

"It's alright. We'll spend the night in the old woman's hotel and set off on foot tomorrow morning." Mr. Joestar grunted, leaning down to pick the poor unconscious woman up again, only to halt when Polnareff loudly protested.

"That place? Come on, Mr. Joestar, I get sleeping for now but why there? Let's at least spend the night in the town then, or something." The Frenchman suggested but you cleared your throat.

"I hate to say it, but I think that may be worse, Polnareff... All the people we saw before, all of those were corpses. So I'm afraid that whole town is littered with them. While that building back there – while decrepit – is at least free of them. Or at least the top floor is." You shuddered a little at the thought of what was in that sitting room while Polnareff seemed to turn a sickly white at the realisation of what that town was.

"I, uh... Cherie, why are you doing this to me?"

"I'm not doing anything." You crossed your arms, just a little childishly and Kakyoin chuckled.

"Come on, let's go get some sleep then. As best as we can at least. I get the feeling tomorrow is not going to be a fun day.

- - - -

Walking on, everything was blurring together.

For the past god knows how long, you'd been walking, and everything was starting to hurt and annoy. Every tiny stone you stepped on that dug into the sole of your shoe, every muscle in your legs protesting from the constant walking, not to mention Polnareff's constant whining and moaning about having to carry the old woman along.

Right now, you and Kakyoin were dragging her together on the custom gurney you'd made. Using one of the worn through blankets of the 'hotel' building and the rope Jotaro had used to tie her up, you'd created a dragging cloth, keeping you all from having to carry the lady for real, simply dragging her along.

Suddenly, your arm was tapped.

"Come on, switch out." Stating it quite clearly, Jotaro reached over before you could react, ready to take over pulling duty.

"Wh- no, Jotaro, your knee is screwed up enough as it is." You protested, glancing down to how he was walking with a limp – like he had been doing all day.

"It'll heal, just give it."

Blinking, you couldn't do much when he was glaring like that. "I uh, yeah okay sure, here." Handing the rope loop to the boy, he nodded with barely a grunt as he then took your place and continued looking forward.

"Are we almost at a town yet? I feel like we've been walking all day and the sun is about to set." Whining once again, you all rolled your eyes at the Frenchman while he was focused on the map in Mr. Joestar's hand.

"Eh..." Sighing loudly, the older man rubbed at the back of his head. "Actually I'm afraid we're not reaching a town for a little bit."

"What do you mean, Mr. Joestar?" Kakyoin asked, a little sweat on his brow from the heat combined with pulling the old woman.

"Yeah what he said!" Polnareff chimed in and you poked him in the side to shut him up, making the Frenchman yelp and jump away from you.

Raising an eyebrow at Polnareff, Joseph then turned the map around so that you could all see it. "We're somewhere around this area." He pointed to a place on the map. "And there is not another town until at least here." Dragging his finger along the paper, a little groan swept through you all upon seeing the distance.

You didn't know too much about maps but you knew that doing that on foot wouldn't be done in just an hour or two.

"We're gonna have to camp here."

"Here?" Polnareff asked, keeping his arms crossed over his stomach, holding his sides while he sent you a wary glance. "But we have no camping gear, no sleeping bags or blankets?"

"We have one blanket!" Mr. Joestar grinned as if it was a victory.

"One blanket? For five- no- six of us?"

"There is trees here though." You spoke up, pointing at the scattering of them on the sides of the road, as well as bushes. "We can build a fire. That should keep us warm enough and keep the possible animals away, right?"

"Precisely!" Joseph pointed at you. "Jotaro, Kakyoin, you can drop the old woman. It's best if we stay here and make sure we gather some supplies before nightfall comes when we can't see anything."

Listening, Jotaro didn't exactly gently let go of the rope, making Kakyoin stumble a bit and glare at the delinquent before summoning Hierophant and smacking the raven's ankle with one of it's tentacles.

Hissing, Jotaro whipped around and kicked at the thing, only to phase through it, making Kakyoin chuckle evilly while Jotaro grumpily rolled his eyes, looking away.

"Jotaro, you're on tree cutting duty." Completely oblivious to the teens' squabble, Mr. Joestar started assigning tasks, making the five of you quickly work to build a camp.

"We need to restock on food soon." Kakyoin hummed. "This is the last we have."

"We can get that when we get to the next town tomorrow." Mr. Joestar answered simply, the conversation playing in the background while you were on the other side of the fire.

Grunting, you were dragging the old lady closer to the flame. Obviously she was a Stand user and Polnareff had explained she was J. Geil's mother, but you still felt bad. Right now she was an old woman and completely defenseless. Maybe it helped that you weren't actually in the fight and hadn't seen her in action.

The sun was nearly fully set when Jotaro came limping in, a large pile of wood in Star Platinum's arms.

"Ah, perfect timing." Joseph smiled and Jotaro grunted as he threw the wood down by the pit his grandfather had made. "Now we just need Polnareff with the kindling."

"I'll go find him." Sighing out, Jotaro turned and started walking when you shot out and grabbed his wrist.

His eyes widening for a bit – not having expected to be grabbed – he then looked down at you with a questioning look.

"Jotaro, go sit. You should be walking least out of all of us." Your eyes were hard as you looked up at him, having only partly gotten to your feet from where you were sitting when he walked past.

"I'm fine." Jotaro went to shake you off but surprisingly, your hold on his wrist tightened.

"No. Sit." Fully getting to your feet, you properly got in front of him and grabbed hold of his shoulder with your other hand before spinning him back and pushing him down.

Surprised and less steady on his feet than normal – given his weight was all on his right leg – the boy sank down with a heavy thud, grimacing as it forcefully bent his knee a bit, now sitting on the ground, a little stunned.

"You dare move an inch and I swear I'll pull you back to this exact spot. I'll go find Polnareff." Walking away with a firm pace, the three men around the unlit campfire just looked on, wide eyed and confused.

-

After quite a bit of struggle, the fire had finally been turned on and now you were nursing a cup of tea while sitting in between Kakyoin and Polnareff.

On the other side of the fire, Joseph was once again funnelling Hamon into Jotaro's knee, for what was probably the seventh time that day.

"Is that doing okay, Jotaro?" Polnareff asked, cringing a bit at the sight of the wound now that his pant leg was rolled up.

"I'm not fucking incapacitated, what's with you guys?" He bit, though you noticed him quickly pulling his hat down his face, making you smile a little bit.

"It's healing fast, luckily." Mr. Joestar hummed as he finished, getting up from where he was crouched. "It's no longer see-through. If we keep this up, it should be healed by this time tomorrow. Healed enough anyways."

In his own way of saying 'thank you' Jotaro grunted and nodded at his grandfather, wrapping a fresh bandage around his knee before rolling the hem of his pant leg back down.

"We'll have to keep the fire burning tonight." Mr. Joestar sighed as he looked around. "Huddle up folks, the nights can get chilly here."

"What, you want to sleep in a pile?" Polnareff questioned, the only other noise being the crackling from the fire.

"We have few options here. Either that or we sleep in the fire. Your choice." Joseph crossed his arms and Polnareff chuckled, declining softly.

Laughing softly, you then got up, walking over to the bags and pulling out the rolled up blanket out of one of them. Walking over to the old lady, you threw it over her, making sure it wouldn't blow away before walking along.

"Y/N, what was that for? That's our only blanket." Polnareff protested. He was unusually chatty today, even more so than normal.

Kakyoin however, had already caught your drift. "If you want to go cuddle with her for warmth, go ahead, Polnareff. We'll take the blanket."

Smiling at the redhead at his comment, he smiled back at you while the Frenchman spluttered out a few words, saying it was fine like this.

"Alright, lights out time." Joseph clapped his hands. "It's a long day tomorrow."

"I'll sleep closest to the fire." You spoke up.

"What, cause women get coldest?" Polnareff chuckled – already recovered from before – making you squint in confusion at him, raising your hand in a 'what the fuck' motion.

Rolling his eyes with a sigh, Kakyoin slapped the back of Polnareff's head. "She's got a shield, Polnareff, it'll make it so none of us roll into the flames as we sleep."

"Oh."

"Just shut your yapper for once today, would you?" Jotaro groaned as he awkwardly scooted closer, trying not to bend or use his left leg at all.

"Alright fine." Polnareff 'hmpf'ed', looking off to the other side before opening his mouth again. "I'll lay as far away from you as I can, but that mean's you'll have to lay next to Y/N."

"Just go sleep, Polnareff." Joseph sighed as he pushed the Frenchman a little bit. He was always up for a bit of teasing but having treated Jotaro several times today, he know more than most how much pain the boy was actually in, making his fuse a little shorter.

"Okay, okay."

Watching everyone lay down in a row by the fire, you shook your head with a smile, summoning White Knight and putting her down as a barrier in between.

It was bound to be an uncomfortable night.

- - - -

I don't really like the beginning of this chapter so I'm sorry it's a bit rushed(The title of the chapter doesn't really fit now, ahsbad) but later on it gets better, I think. I just hope you still liked it ^^

18-09-2022