Joseph finished speaking and reached into his coat's inner pocket, producing a neatly folded map. He spread it across the table, smoothed the creases with one flat palm, and tapped Hong Kong with a decisive finger.
"We take the sea route," he said. "Rent a ship of appropriate size, go around the Malay Peninsula, and cross the Indian Ocean."
"The Maritime Silk Road," Avdol said, leaning over the map. His finger traced the same line southward. "This is genuinely the more secure choice. Land would mean border procedures, mountain ranges, desert regions — one significant delay and we lose days we simply can't afford."
"I've traveled neither route," Kakyoin said quietly, hands resting on his knees. "I'll follow whatever you decide."
Jotaro and Shintaro exchanged a brief glance and answered in almost the same moment.
"Fine." "Same here."
"Then it's settled." Joseph pressed his palm flat on the map. "But the real threat hasn't changed. DIO knows our abilities. Moving through his territory without being spotted — that's the challenge that matters."
He exhaled through his nose.
"We take it one step at a time," Shintaro said after a moment. "The enemy is watching for patterns. Over-planning might actually make us easier to anticipate."
Joseph thought about it, then nodded and folded the map away.
At that moment, Kakyoin reached out and gently lifted the lid of the white porcelain teapot sitting at the center of the table. He left it ajar by the width of a finger — just enough to reveal the dark surface of the tea within.
Jotaro glanced at it. His eyebrow moved slightly.
Shintaro caught the motion and followed it before he fully decided to.
"Kakyoin — that gesture feels strangely familiar. That's a way of asking for more tea, isn't it?"
"Exactly." Kakyoin turned with a faint smile. "Leaving the lid slightly open tells the server that while there's still tea in the pot, you'd appreciate a refill. A polite signal rather than a direct request."
"Oh?" Joseph's attention sharpened immediately. He leaned forward. "Shintaro, you recognized that — did a memory come back?"
"...No." Shintaro lowered his eyes a fraction. His voice softened. "Just a feeling. The specific memory isn't there — only the shape of it."
"No rush," Joseph said warmly, landing his broad hand on Shintaro's shoulder with uncomplicated affection. "The journey is long. Memories tend to surface when you've stopped chasing them."
Shintaro's fingers pressed slightly against the tabletop.
Joseph had actually remembered. He had remembered the excuse Shintaro had invented weeks ago and was still treating it with genuine care. That landed somewhere Shintaro hadn't anticipated, and in a way he hadn't prepared for.
A waitress with her hair in neat double buns approached and refilled Kakyoin's cup with practiced ease, steam rising as the fresh tea settled.
When she withdrew, Kakyoin raised his right hand and tapped two fingertips twice against the surface of the table.
"The finger-tapping kowtow," he explained, to the general table. "A gesture of gratitude. Legend holds that Emperor Qianlong once traveled incognito among his subjects. When he wanted to thank an attendant without revealing himself by kneeling, he bent his fingers and tapped — a bowed hand in place of a bowed body."
The waitress nodded with a knowing smile and stepped away.
"You know a remarkable amount of this kind of etiquette," Shintaro observed.
"My family traveled extensively when I was young," Kakyoin said. "When you see enough of the world at an early age, the details start to hold your attention." A brief pause. "It becomes a habit, I suppose."
"I understand that," Shintaro said — quietly, and meant it in more ways than one.
"Excuse me — sorry to interrupt."
A voice entered the conversation from the side, carrying with it a light, cosmopolitan confidence that had clearly never encountered a room it felt unwelcome in.
Everyone turned.
A silver-haired man stood beside the table, his hair maintaining an angle that defied conventional meteorology. His expression mixed casual charm with studied helplessness in proportions that suggested deliberate calibration. His eyes were bright, curious, and thoroughly unbothered.
Shintaro recognized him in the same instant the face registered.
Jean Pierre Polnareff.
Approximately fifteen distinct images from the original work arrived in his memory in immediate rapid succession — the vast majority of them deeply undignified. He turned his face sharply toward the window and pinched the webbing between his thumb and forefinger with controlled desperation.
Keep it together. Not now. Absolutely not now.
"I'm a traveler from France," Polnareff announced, spreading his hands with the expression of a man who finds his own predicament genuinely interesting. "The Chinese characters on this menu — impossible. You all seem quite at home here. Could any of you help?"
"Yakamashi." Jotaro didn't lift his eyes. He jerked one thumb to the side. "Beat it."
Polnareff blinked. He appeared to require a moment to process the possibility of simple, unqualified rejection.
"Now, now, Jotaro." Joseph waved a hand and extended the other toward Polnareff. "Give me the menu."
He patted the empty chair beside him.
"Sit down. You're alone, and we just ordered — no reason not to join us."
"Oh! Truly, thank you." Polnareff pulled out the chair without hesitation and settled in beside Avdol with the ease of a man who has never genuinely doubted his welcome anywhere.
And so Shintaro witnessed: Joseph Joestar, a man who had fought ancient gods, patiently explaining dim sum items to a silver-haired Frenchman whose expression shifted between earnest confusion and genuine delight.
This is, objectively, the most unexpectedly wholesome scene I have encountered since arriving in this world.
"This!" Polnareff pointed, voice rising. "'French Toast' — I know that one! But this small line underneath — 'with Hong Kong-style condensed milk'? What is condensed milk?"
Joseph gave a full, generous laugh and began to explain.
Shintaro quietly got to his feet.
"Mr. Joseph — I have a fairly large appetite today. Would you mind if I took a neighboring table? I'm concerned these little ones might cause some disruption when the food arrives."
He tilted his head meaningfully toward his collar.
"Fine, fine — sit close by," Joseph said, not looking up from the menu.
The Black Sperm materialized before he'd finished the sentence — two of them latching onto Joseph's arms, their faces arranged into expressions of maximum endearing effort.
"Can we order for ourselves~?"
Joseph looked at them.
A single beat of silence.
"Order whatever you want! I lack many things, but money isn't one of them!"
"GRANDPA IS THE ABSOLUTE BEST!!"
The two Black Sperm dove at the menu with the focused intensity of very small professionals with very specific opinions about food. Polnareff, seated two chairs away, observed Joseph apparently conducting an animated conversation with thin air, produced no visible reaction whatsoever, and turned his attention back to the menu with serene pragmatism.
Shintaro carried his water glass to the neighboring table, pulled out a chair, and sat down with his back to the group.
[ today was a shit , no maybe this whole week was quiet shit for me as many of you people know i made this account and patreon account so i can earn some money to buy some headphones i had the money but well i thought i will buy myself a new phone and new headphones why because both are not in one piece literally .
on other note i had to pay my fees by this month so almost all the money i had been saving went there and now i am broke again then but thats ok money comes and goes but the fuckery google and claude did today is making me insane i bought the "pro" version of claude and it was not that special then i thought maybe i can get a refund but google is screwing me over on that front i cant open claude support for some reason
DAAMMMMIT i could have eaten out 4 time with that money these assholes are sprinkling salt over my wounds (╥﹏╥) why am i writing this because i want bitch about my life to people who don't know me so they can't bitch back to me]
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and i do read all the comments even those in other languages (by translating it of course) so you guys can also bitch some as well -- GOD if are please tilt some fortune this way please other than sometimes eating chicken i haven't done any thing wrong ]]
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