The text message read:
[Rohan Kishibe's Stand is called [Heaven's Door]. Its ability is to read anyone's memories and add certain settings. ps: This guy loves snooping into people's privacy and has extremely low morals!!]
Jolyne could feel Mari Nishikimi's resentment through the phone screen. It seemed she was one of the victims too.
Thinking about it, given Rohan's cautious nature, on the day she first arrived, had he also...
Jolyne suddenly felt a lump in her throat, stuck and unable to go up or down.
If that was the case, then didn't that mean her father and the others already knew her true identity and the outcome of the future world being destroyed by Father Pucci?
Calm down, Jolyne, calm down first. But right now, more than everyone knowing the future, she was more concerned about what her father, Jotaro, was thinking.
So, from the very beginning, her father knew she was Jolyne and had been putting on an act with her all these days?
Well, he certainly acted the part.
Then, the gifts she received this morning were most likely from her father.
Instead of feeling touched by her father's concern, Jolyne was now filled with the humiliation of being fooled. She couldn't stand this. She rushed out of her room in a few quick steps and knocked on Jotaro's door.
No answer. That didn't faze her. Jolyne turned her hand into thin strings, slipped them through the door crack, found the doorknob, wrapped them tightly around it, and then pulled hard. The door successfully opened from the inside.
Unfortunately, Jotaro was in the room, standing by the floor-to-ceiling window talking to someone on the phone. Her sudden appearance caused a flicker of surprise on Jotaro's face, which quickly returned to normal. He said a few quiet words into the phone and hung up.
"Ellen? What are you doing?" Jotaro glanced at Jolyne's not-yet-reverted "breaking and entering tools," frowned, but didn't seem angry.
Jolyne wasn't in the right, but her anger made her bold. Braving the embarrassment of being caught red-handed, she said, "I wanted to ask what you're doing, Dad! You knew I was Jolyne all along, didn't you? You knew and acted like nothing happened... Really..."
He was still calling her "[Ellen]" now. She couldn't believe he could say it with a straight face.
"About all of this, I am sorry, Jolyne." Jotaro walked towards her and abruptly pulled her into a hug.
"Jolyne, I've always cared deeply about everything concerning you."
Yes, he had always cared. Because of the Joestar family's damned fate, he had to clean up the mess Dio left behind all over the world. Because he had too many enemies, afraid of implicating his family, he could only choose to divorce Jolyne's mother.
As a father, he had missed his daughter's entire youth. Despite all his efforts, his Jolyne was still dragged into this, still unable to escape the Joestar family's destiny.
When he saw his future self fall through Rohan's ability, he was momentarily dazed. But when he saw Jolyne also perish at the bottom of the sea not long after his death, he was furious.
He was furious that he, as a father, had lost the ability to protect his daughter.
At the same time, he was also relieved. His poor Jolyne, his brave Jolyne, had finally broken out of her cocoon and emerged as a butterfly, displaying precious Golden Spirit.
Jotaro Kujo was proud of Jolyne Cujoh.
It was all too sudden. Jolyne was pressed against Jotaro's chest. Only when she felt his burning body heat did she truly feel that her father was still alive.
It felt good.
"Dad, actually..."
"Housekeeping~" A hotel employee chose this exact moment to arrive, interrupting what Jolyne was about to say.
The hotel employee saw the two embracing and clearly misunderstood something. Flustered, he immediately bowed at a perfect 90-degree angle. "My apologies, Mr. Kujo! I'm so sorry for disturbing you! The door was open..."
He finished and immediately fled, very thoughtfully closing the door behind him.
"Hey, it's not what you think!" Jolyne hurried forward, wanting to explain that she and her father weren't in that kind of relationship, but she was a step too late.
Ah, forget it. It probably couldn't be explained to anyone else. After all, she was nineteen now, and her father was only twenty-eight. No one would believe he could have a daughter her age...
Finally, Jotaro broke the awkward silence. "Jolyne, tell me, why is Pucci so obsessed with reaching Heaven?"
"It's related to an experience from his youth."
Jolyne had heard this tragic story from Wes, Father Pucci's younger brother, after he regained his memories.
Wes was Pucci's biological brother but was kidnapped. As an adult, he fell in love with his own biological sister. Pucci, knowing the truth, naturally had to separate them.
The final result was—the sister died, Wes had his memories sealed, and Pucci bore all the pain.
Feeling deeply toyed with by fate, he swore to create a perfect world—his proclaimed Heaven Plan.
The plan had two key elements—one was Dio's bone, and the other was Jotaro's memory.
Because Dio had written the method to reach Heaven in a book. Jotaro read that book after defeating Dio and then burned it. This meant Jotaro was the only person in the world who knew the method to reach Heaven, which was also why Pucci was willing to do anything to kill him.
"Tell me, Dad, what exactly was written in that book Dio had?" Jolyne absolutely did not believe in the existence of a perfect world.
She always believed it was a fantasy world fabricated by Pucci to escape fate.
Even if the old world was destroyed, the new world wasn't real either.
"Nothing important." After saying this, Jotaro lowered the brim of his hat, habitually hiding the upper half of his face in shadow.
"So, Dad, what's your suggestion? Go to America now and take out Father Pucci?" That's what Jolyne had always thought, but偏偏 (of all times) the routes were under maintenance these few days, forcing her to stay in Morioh temporarily.
Wait... could this route maintenance also be her father's doing? Jolyne turned and stared straight at Jotaro, demanding an explanation.
Jotaro looked uncharacteristically guilty, turning his head away from Jolyne.
"Jolyne, we need to deal with the immediate trouble first." Jotaro successfully changed the subject. "Stand users attract each other, but don't you think there are an unusually high number of Stand users in Morioh?"
Jolyne knew there were two types of Stand users: those like her and her father, who were natural-born, and those who were ordinary people who awakened their Stands using the power of the Arrow.
Like Ermes, she became a Stand user after being pierced by a fragment of the Arrow Jolyne discarded in prison.
"You mean..."
"Correct. Someone in this town has the Arrow. As a member of the Joestar family, I cannot ignore the Arrow."
The Arrow itself wasn't good or evil; it depended on the person using it. Clearly, the person in Morioh was inherently evil.
"You went investigating this morning, didn't you?" Jotaro added, "With that newly moved-in novelist."
"How did you know?!" Jolyne couldn't believe it, then felt a bit angry. "Were you following me?"
Jotaro felt a bit weary but found Jolyne's indignant expression somewhat cute, though he maintained his usual cold facade.
"I wouldn't do that." Seeing Jolyne lower her guard, he began to explain. "It was Koichi. He and Kishibe discovered an alley haunted by a ghost. There, they encountered Sugimoto Reimi. Of course, Sugimoto Reimi in her state as an earthbound spirit."
That name was very familiar to Jolyne. She was one of the victims of the home invasion murder years ago.
"This town is filled with sin and curses. The surface tranquility cannot mask the undercurrents flowing beneath."
Jolyne had already suspected this. A couple of days ago, Mari Nishikimi had told her that Morioh's crime rate was over ten times the national average.
Only a Stand user with supernatural power could achieve something like this.
Only by finding the criminal could Morioh be saved, and the souls of victims like Sugimoto Reimi and Eguchi Noriko finally rest in peace.
But that evil Stand user was very cunning, not only capable of destroying evidence and bodies but also preventing anyone from obtaining any information about him.
"Dad, do you have any leads?"
"Hah," Jotaro's corner of his mouth twitched upward by a pixel. Just as Jolyne thought he had reliable information, he directly said, "Not a clue."
If it were ten years ago, facing this situation, Jotaro would have Ora Ora'd everyone in town.
But the current Jotaro had learned restraint. The baptism of time had turned the once arrogant and invincible youth into a mature, steady, utterly reliable pillar of the team.
"Ah?" Jolyne was having a hard time keeping a straight face. She hadn't expected her father to be like this in his youth, once again refreshing her understanding of him.
"Then we should—"
"What we should do most right now is go to the restaurant for dinner." Jotaro directly cut her off.
Jotaro's reminder made Jolyne check the wall clock. It was already 7 PM. Reluctantly, she agreed to listen to Jotaro but couldn't resist adding, "Just so you know, if the restaurant food isn't to my taste, I'm refusing to pay."
She wasn't sure if she was seeing things, but after she said that, she thought she saw her father smile, though the corner of his mouth quickly returned to its usual line.
---
Morioh Grand Hotel, Second-Floor Restaurant.
It was dinnertime. The aisles were packed with people. Looking around, every seat was taken; there were no empty tables.
"Tch." Jolyne hadn't expected that even after leaving Green Dolphin Street Prison, she'd still have the experience of waiting in line for a meal. Really... speechless.
"Jolyne, perhaps we can eat at a restaurant outside." Jotaro looked at the sea of people in the restaurant. That was really enough.
But this worked out. A couple of days ago, Josuke had enthusiastically recommended a restaurant near the cemetery. The chef was Italian. Although the location was a bit remote, the taste was impeccable. It would be perfect to take Jolyne there.
Jolyne, who didn't want to wait anyway, readily agreed. But just as she was about to speak, she was interrupted by a group of diners at a nearby table.
"Are you two looking for a seat? If you don't mind, you can share our table. We just so happen to have two spots left."
The person inviting them to share the table was a high school girl who looked about her age. She was very cute, though her spiky hairstyle was a bit eye-catching.