He didn't know why he hadn't expected it, but Jolyne did not like her time at a dojo.

"What we learn here is purely for self defense," the instructor told him, his lips pursed and unhappy. "It is to never be used as an offensive technique unless absolutely necessary. When your daughter finally understands that, she'll fit in much better."

The implication that she hadn't been getting along with the rest of the children did not go unnoticed, and while the instruction for defensive, protective techniques was certainly understandable, it was not quite in line with what Jolyne had wanted the experience to be, nor was it quite why Jotaro had sent her there in the first place.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to," he told her when they walked home. Jolyne's lower lip jutted out and she stared at the ground defiantly as they stepped off the bus.

Thinking about it now, he had always assumed on some level that Jolyne would be the type of person to be rather popular. Beyond the natural assumption that one's child would naturally be everything the parent could not be, Jolyne was extroverted, outgoing, and amusing to converse with— all traits that separated her from her father. Yet, the one thing she had inherited from him, a difficult, stubborn personality, had managed to overpower any other traits that could have set her apart in this instance.

"I dunno," she muttered. "I'll ask Uncle Josuke."

Josuke, who was coming to visit in a two hours, would apparently be staying the night at the Kujo estate. They'd all be having dinner with his mother there, as well.

"What does he know that you and I don't?" He asked her.

"He told me he's a delinquedent. It's his job to be strong. I'll ask him how he got his job."

"Delinquent," he corrected. And, judging by the way he'd modified his uniform and hair… he probably was. "Isn't that my job, too? To… 'be strong?'"

"You're a hero. You beat up the villains, Uncle Josuke beats up his classmates," she explained patiently. "I wanna be like him, not you."

Jolyne, of course, had no idea that her father had been quite notorious for the same reason as his uncle a few years ago. Jotaro didn't really feel like explaining it either, so he let the topic slide for now.

When they reached their apartment, there were a few unexpected guests at the doorstep.

"Oh, is that so?" Jotaro's mother said. "See, I'm rather fond of Present Mic myself. His performance at UA's Sports Festival last year was certainly something! He didn't win, but his ability to use his quirk in unique ways is really ingenious."

"Certainly!" Toshinori Yagi agreed, just as happily. "I feel like everyone has high hopes for him in the industry. It's still his first year as a pro, so he'll only go up from here. I thought Midnight in his year was rather impressive as well."

"Oh, Midnight! She's so wonderful," Holy gushed, and Jotaro hadn't realized that she had kept up with the latest heroes so diligently. "It's such a shame she had to edit her costume due to complaints. Hopefully it won't hinder her performance."

"I think it won't for her, but it's a real problem for other women in the industry."

Jolyne, who was watching the two converse almost as bemusedly as him, whispered loudly to him, "What're they talking about? What's a present mike?"

"They're talking about heroes."

"How come they didn't mention you, then? You're the best," she said.

Her loud voice caused the the two to turn in Jolyne and Jotaro's direction, and Jotaro's mother beamed even more brightly. "You're back! Jotaro, you never told me about your wonderful neighbor!"

"Mom," he replied, a bit perplexed. "Weren't we going to meet at your house?"

"Yes, well, I went to go pick up my prescription and do a bit of shopping. Then I figured, why don't we all go pick Josuke and his friends up together? That way they won't get lost." She turned back to his neighbor and spoke, as enthusiastic as ever as she bowed. "It's great that you and Jotaro live near each other. Please take care of him for me."

"Oh no, not at all, Mrs. Seiko," Toshinori replied. "I hope I'm not too much a nuisance as a neighbor."

He was as meekly polite as ever, and it was beginning to be a little grating. "You're fine," Jotaro informed him, then turned to his mother. "Let's go inside, then."

Once the door was shut behind them and Jolyne had rushed off to her room to set down her bag, Jotaro said to her, "I didn't know you kept up with heroes."

"My own son is a hero, why wouldn't I? Besides, it's so wonderful to see all these young men and women trying their best. You can't help but root for them! U.A.'s Sports Festival is so fun to watch; maybe you should take Jolyne to go see it live next year."

She set down her shopping bag while talking, and he noted the smaller paper bag from the pharmacy inside.

Abruptly switching the subject, he gestured vaguely in the direction of her pills. "It's still working?"

"How kind of you to worry about me, you sweet boy, you!" She made motion to kiss his cheek, and he reluctantly bent down for a quick peck. "Don't fret though, your mother is just fine!" She made a V sign with her hand as she beamed.

"Grandma Holly's just fine!" Jolyne echoed down the hall.

"That's good," he replied, because it was.

"Never mind me, Jotaro, why didn't you tell me about Mr. Yagi? He's even in the same business as you," she said. "He seems just like your type!"

It took a moment for the words to sink in, and when he finally blinked slowly. "... What?" He asked, unsure if he had heard that right.

"He seems like your type," she repeated patiently.

"He's your type!" Jolyne shouted as she wandered back to the living room, then asked her grandma thoughtfully, "What does that mean?"

Indeed, what did that mean? His expression must have seemed a bit confounded, for his mother laughed, explained in a manner that did not explain anything, "He reminds me of all the other friends you've brought home."

The conversation took a few twists and turns as they all walked out together towards the bus. The traffic during this time of the day was horrid; it'd be no faster if Jotaro drove than if they took the bus. Jolyne grabbed one of each of their hands and shook them rapidly, as if trying to perform a handshake with two people at once, and Jotaro found himself preoccupied with that for a while.

Yet eventually, the subject drifted back into the forefront, and Jotaro asked, "You said 'my other friends.' Like who?" To be honest, he couldn't recall a single person who was even remotely like Toshinori.

"Hmm, well, you've really only brought home three people. But really, he's like all of them!"

Trying to understand what counted as Jotaro "bringing someone home," he tugged on his hat and pulled Jolyne away from the window, where she was attempting to stick her tongue to the plane of glass.

"There was Jean Pierre," Holy recounted, "That lovely young man from before Egypt, Mr. Noriaki. And then Jolyne's mother!"

"Who's John Pierre? His name's stupid."

Polnareff, Kakyoin, and Jolyne's mother. Those were the three friends he'd "brought home?" For Kakyoin, well… it hadn't exactly been a social visit to the Kujo household, per say. For Polnareff, he'd come to visit Jotaro during his high school graduation, and he and Holy had met then. For his ex-wife, that one was obvious.

"You always make friends with very kind people," Holy said.

"If they're Daddy's friends, then why don't I know them?" Jolyne demanded. "You didn't bring them home to meet me!"

"You weren't born yet."

"Then they're old ," she said, as if any and all friends ought to be seven or younger.

"You should invite him over sometime," Holy said, and her eyes crinkled up as they stepped off the bus and began to walk towards the bustling train station. "I'm sure he'll find such a sweet boy like you wonderful company."

Josuke and his two friends were located not too long after, and with the help of Jolyne hollering at the top of her lungs, they were quickly hustling out of the station and back to the Kujo Estate.

By the time they had arrived at their destination, Jotaro had decided on one opinion: Koichi Hirose was a strange boy.

It didn't appear to be the case. In most respects, he was quite normal. Perhaps that was what made him odd in the first place— the fact that an ordinary high school boy like him would have been caught in such a bizarre situation was really quite that: bizarre. Someone like Josuke, whose entire bloodline had been caught up in something beyond all them, or someone like Okuyasu Nijimura, whose father had apparently been doing things he shouldn't have— those made sense. Blood ran thick.

Koichi Hirose, however, was a quirkless fifteen year old with no notable family history and no outstanding talents. It was easy to say that Jotaro had asked Josuke to bring him along because of that fact, this bizarreness.

It… wasn't actually why, though.

While his mother ushered them off into a tea room and had Jotaro "entertain the guests while Jolyne and I make dinner," Koichi carefully recounted the events that had led up to his discovery with the ease of someone who had obviously explained the whole thing before to several people. Still, there wasn't much to go off of. Most of it he had already heard from Josuke, and Koichi's own perspective was not too different.

Seeing as he'd already spent two weeks thinking on this, the words came easily to him.

"I'm not a doctor or biologist," Jotaro said, "So take this with a grain of salt. But it's possible that your quirk might just be an evolutionary mutation."

"An evolutionary mutation… ?"

"Quirks in and of themselves are a mutation." There were enough children whose quirks didn't match up with their parents' as a result of genetic mutation. Thus, it wouldn't be particularly surprising if the nature of quirks would change in the future as well. "Think about quirks in animals. Each species developed quirks separately, so the biology behind them is very different in each case. For many animals, that indicator joint isn't vestigial, or never existed to begin with. But each species' quirk is considered a quirk nonetheless."

"But I'm a human," Koichi squeaked.

"I'm not saying you aren't," he replied. "Just don't worry too much about it. If you can use your quirk without a problem and no other health issues arise, just let it go."

"Yeah," Josuke piped up. "That's what I've been saying this whole time, Koichi!" Nonetheless, he looked considerably more relieved for his friend. "But wow, you sure know a lot about this stuff, Jotaro. Did you look into it recently or something?"

"No, not really."

"Then… ?"

"No reason," he said. The words I took a course on quirk manifestations in animals in uni and never forgot a lot of it did not slip through. Nor did it was because I was on track to earn some a zoology degree, and most certainly not I asked Koichi to come to Musutafu because I was just extremely interested, and it was most certainly not true anyway.

"Um," Koichi spoke meekly. "I… Josuke said you wouldn't mind if I took the chance to ask you some things about heroics?"

"Sure."

"I… I always wanted to become a hero," he said earnestly, in a surprisingly determined way that Jotaro couldn't help but blink at. Coming from such an unassuming kid, it had been a bit out of left field. "I was the sort of kid who'd run to the TV as soon as I got home, and turned on the radio just hear the hosts about the newest hero news, you know? I always knew it wasn't really a possibility since I was quirkless, but now that things have turned out the way they have, I've seriously been thinking about it.

"You're the only hero I've ever gotten a chance to meet up close, and you were once in a similar position as I am right now. So I was wondering… is there anything you'd advise for… for someone like me?"

His voice trailed off meekly by the end, looking rather disheartened by whatever he saw on Jotaro's face, which Jotaro himself wasn't quite sure looked like. He said mildly, "I'm not sure how much advice I could give you just based off that. I was in… a unique set of circumstances at the time."

"Koichi's a genius," Josuke interrupted, and his friend Okuyasu nodded in agreement. "He's so smart! Even though he didn't have anything special, he's managed to deal with so many situations that I would've totally needed my quirk! I'm telling you, Mr. Jotaro, you won't find a more reliable guy than Koichi! He can totally make it pro!"

"I wouldn't ask anyone but Koichi for help on anything that involved being smart," Okuyaus said firmly, and at the betrayed look Josuke gave him added, "Sorry bro, just being truthful."

"You don't need to try to sell him to me," Jotaro said, somewhere between annoyed and impressed by the exuberance of both of them. "I'm not a recruiter."

"Yukako's gonna have my ass if I don't sell him properly," Josuke asserted, and pushed Koichi, who looked spectacularly embarrassed by all of this, forward. "Look at him! Look at how reliable he looks! And he's got field experience! How many students on the hero track have that?! Please, Mr. Jotaro, anything that can help him out, please spill the beans!"

Jotaro, growing more and more bemused by the second, said to the extremely nervous and unreliable-looking Koichi, "Summer break is in late July, isn't it?"

Upon seeing multiple nods he continued, "Koichi. If you're interested, come work for me as an intern then."

Koichi immediately clapped a hand over his mouth as he muffled what sounded like an unholy shriek. When his mouth was removed, he was blabbering, "For— for— oh my god, Mr. Jotaro, really!? An intern!? "

"I don't know much about you or your ability to utilize your quirk," he said. "The easiest way at this point would be to gain some experience. Experience that you won't get in trouble talking about," he clarified when Josuke opened his mouth in protest, who quickly snapped it shut right after. "Even a little would be fine. If I think you've got potential, I don't mind recommending you to a school, either. Even for places like U.A., transferring in through recommendation isn't nearly as hard."

"Oh my god," Koichi repeated, as if he hadn't heard a single word Jotaro had just said. "Star Platinum's asking me to intern for him."

Jotaro, who was privately still fascinated by the oddities of the boy's quirk, said easily, "It's no skin off my back either way. Just think about it. Talk to your parents."

"I— of course I'll think about it," Koichi stammered out. He stood up habitually, frenetically fidgety as he bowed deeply. "Th-thank you so much for the opportunity!"

Satisfied with that, and not particularly inclined to conversing with three teenage boys for anything beyond topics that interested himself, Jotaro excused himself with the simple explanation of helping his mother with the meal. While leaving, he saw Koichi approach Josuke and grab him in a bear hug out of the corner of his eye.

"Thank you for being Star Platinum's illegitimate uncle," Koichi could be heard saying earnestly, "I'm so glad you're my friend."

"Uh, thanks," Josuke said awkwardly, and Jotaro closed the door.

After dinner when they were all sitting about doing nothing important, Jolyne, who had gotten incredibly tired about half past nine, threw a small tantrum as Jotaro lifted her up and told her evenly, "It's time to sleep."

"Sleepy time's for dumbasses!" Jolyne yelled, and Okuyasu, who had been chatting with Holy about— cleaning supplies? — quickly jerked to look over in shock.

"Whoah," Josuke said. "Uh, that's some strong language, Jolyne. Maybe—"

Jotaro said to her, "Only dumbasses don't sleep when they're tired."

Josuke politely shut up.

"Uh," Okuyasu said. "Mrs. Seiko? Is this… alright?"

She blinked, said, "Yes? I don't see why not! Jolyne needs her sleep."

"I don't!" Jolyne snapped as she was manhandled away by her father. "Lemme go! I didn't ask Mr. Okuyasu about his— his pfbbbth!" She had interrupted herself by biting Jotaro's hand, who looked at her with unsurprised bleakness of someone who was used to this.

"Are you an animal?" He asked, and hauled his goblin child away.

Once they were both gone, Josuke leaned over to Koichi and said, "My mom would tan my hide if I acted like that as a kid! I wouldn't see the light of day for a month."

"Same," Koichi responded, blinking. "That's…"

"Kinda cool," all three of them finished, not quite in sync.

Holy Kujo looked at them kindly for a moment, then said, "Wait, before I forget— Josuke, let's take a picture, alright? She looked around, "Oh, where did I put that Polaroid?"

A bit rummaging around, and it was found in the room adjacent to the one they were currently in. Holy said fondly, "Jotaro keeps telling me this house is too big, and things keep getting lost because of it. He's right, but it's such a lovely place, isn't it? The Kujo family has owned it for generations."

"Mrs. Seiko, where's your husband?" Okuyasu asked as Holy ushered Josuke into the frame. He held it up the camera amiably. "That's Josuke's brother-in-law, right?"

She laughed, and Josuke looked somewhere between embarrassed and uncomfortable. "He's on tour," she said. "My husband's a musician, see. He's getting on in the years, you know, and he's been thinking of retiring soon. But he still loves going on tours while he's still at it, so who am I to stop him?"

The flash went off, and camera was put back down. "I'm so thankful you all came today, Josuke," Holy said. "You and your friends are always welcome here, alright?" She patted him on the shoulder, the wrinkles and smile lines on her face growing more pronounced.

Josuke, as most 16 year-old boys around kindly, doting ladies they were unfamiliar with were wont to do, could only nod uncomfortably and respond in turn with the manners that had been drilled into him by his mother. There really was no correct way to talk to a sibling whose life and age were so split from his, and that she treated him like he was a favored nephew made it clear that she understood this difficulty.

"It was nice to see you again, Mrs. Holy," he said truthfully.

She beamed again, then blinked and clapped her hands. "Oh!" She said. "I forgot. Excuse me for a sec, I've got to— oh dear, where did I put it? I could've sworn— oh, there it is!" She held up a prescription bottle triumphantly. "Maybe Jotaro has a point after all!"

"Huh? What's that, Mrs. Seiko?"

"Nothing too much, Koichi."

Josuke, who had a closer look at the bottle, could only frown.

Quirk suppressants?

"Daddy," Jolyne yawned, poking at the unfamiliar blanket covering her, "I didn't ask Josuke and his friends how to… how to… umm, what did you call it? Uh… 'assert my dominance' yet."

"Go to sleep," he said. "They're all staying for the night here— you can… assert your dominance tomorrow."

"Ok," she said, in a way that meant she wasn't quite done yet. "Daddy, how come your friends don't visit you?"

Sudden subject change aside, it was a bit surprising that the bit of conversation from earlier had stuck with her.

"Because I don't ask them to," he answered honestly.

"Why not? Grandma Holy says you have least two." She continued slowly, "Two friends is good. I've got two friends too. How about… uh, John, why can't he come?"

Fondness flickered. "He's a hero in Europe. He's busy."

"Then the other guy," she pressed seriously, and his heart pulsed slowly. "What about him? Kakyoin?"

Well indeed, what about him? There were many things that could be said in response to this. He's also far away, or I won't see him for a long time, or some other kinder way to say it. No matter what he said, it would certainly not be what she was expecting.

"He's not here anymore, like your mom," he told her, because there was really no other way to explain it.

Her face crumpled.

Perhaps he shouldn't have said that. Yet he felt as if saying anything otherwise would only lead to more and more questions, to which it'd all lead to the same end result.

"Sorry," he said anyway, unsure as to whether she'd even understand that apology. "Forget it, Jolyne."

There was a long moment where he thought she might cry, but when she looked up to him she cried out, "Then you don't have two friends, you only have one! That's half as many I have!" She flung off her blanket and threw it at him, then pointed accusingly. "You need friends!"

Jotaro threw the blanket back at her. "Do you think you need more friends?"

"I'm ok!"

"If Nejire moved away," he asked, "And I told you just one friend wasn't enough, that you should get more friends. Would you agree with that?"

Absolutely not, spoke the expression on Jolyne's face, but she pressed, "But… aren't you lonely?"

Little seven year old Jolyne asked this, and Jotaro tilted his head. Was this question simply common sense, in which a lack of friends would naturally mean solitude, which would then lead to loneliness, or out of empathy, something she herself had felt? Did she feel alone sometimes, with his busy work schedule and time away from school?

She didn't tell him these things. He thought on bringing it up and asking her, but he set the thought down, put it away for another time.

He said instead, poking at her forehead, "Why would I be lonely?"

Jolyne's mouth shot open in realization, and her eyes bulged out. There was a moment of shocked silence.

She said resolutely after a moment, failing to hide big, pleased grin on her face. "You're ok, then."

Jotaro confirmed, because he really was, "I am."

"Cause things aren't too bad right now."

"Yeah."

"Mr. Yagi's a big idiot anyway," she said.

"He's really not."

"You don't need to be friends with him."

"Sure." Not that he particularly cared either way, but it was good to be clear. "The same way you don't need more friends, either."

"Cause you've got me ."

He rolled his eyes. She rolled her eyes at him and snickered. "Go to sleep," he repeated again, and poked her again.

.

Super tired right now and did not read a single word I just wrote; will proofread in the morning.

And ngl, I've been slowly dying in school right now so uh. Yeah, that's why writing hasn't really happened recently.