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[lapidarius]

"This is Kakyoin Noriaki. Please leave a message, I'll contact you as soon as I can."

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Comments

[starmark]

...Happy birthday.

[Said the awkward prince of awkward, awkwardly.]

[lapidarius]

...

What day in February?

[oh you're in trouble now]

[starmark]

The eighth. It's annoying because it's right before Valentine's Day, and someone always finds out or remembers.

[lapidarius]

I won't tell anyone. But you should expect that I won't leave it alone, either.

[starmark]

Well, you're not a shrieking girl, either, so it's fine.

[lapidarius]

...

[hm.]

Is it okay that I call you the same thing they do? I just realized that I never thought about whether or not it would be annoying.

[starmark]

...You mean "Jojo", right?

[lapidarius]

Yeah. I do at least remember how annoying it sounded, to listen to them arguing over you.

[starmark]

...

[He fell quiet a minute, eyes a little narrow in thought as he seemed to mull over the question.]

It's different when you do it. It doesn't bother me.

[lapidarius]

...

[Kakyoin tugged on the jacket's collar again, half hiding his face before hesitantly continuing.]

I kept calling you that when we were fighting, but that wasn't...me. You and I both know I wasn't the one speaking back then. When I was myself again, I switched to calling you 'Jotaro' for the most part.

But before long I thought that...I wanted to be able to call you that because I chose to, rather than out of compulsion or mind control. I didn't want it to be irritating, so I only did it on occasion--but you never seemed to mind it, so I guess it's become a habit by now.

[starmark]

Taking it back for yourself, huh?

[lapidarius]

Yeah. It's...pretty minor, all things considered. But it was something small that I could take as my own after all of that.

[starmark]

...For what it's worth, Dio never called me anything but "Jotaro".

Even with everything going on, I would've noticed if he'd used something different.

[lapidarius]

I'm not too certain why it was different for me, then.

[...]

Honestly, there's no way for me to explain much of anything I said or did back then.

[starmark]

You don't have to. We both know what it was.

[lapidarius]

Yeah. I know.

[...]

...It's not really 'okay' or anything like that, but I...think that I can talk about it at this point. If you ever--I don't know, if you thought I was hiding from it or anything like that, I'm not.

[starmark]

I didn't think that.

[...]

Do you worry a lot, about what I think about you?

[lapidarius]

...I suppose that I worry about what most people I like think about me. Doesn't everyone, once in a while?

[starmark]

...Yeah. I guess I'm that way, too.

Like with Jonathan, and Giorno, and them.

[lapidarius]

It's...normal to want to make a good impression with friends, right? I know that I don't want to be seen as someone unreliable or fragile, and I guess that...after everything that's happened, I worry that I'm going to end up coming across like that.

[starmark]

...I want to ask you something.

Say you're in a fight. I don't mean with a Stand user or anything, just a regular fistfight. Does it mean you're weak, if the guy you're fighting knocks you down?

Just answer honestly, there's a point to this.

[lapidarius]

I would say that depends only on the results; whether I win or lose.

[starmark]

When do you know that you've lost?

[lapidarius]

When I don't have the strength to get back up and keep fighting.

[starmark]

Right.

When I think about that thing you had in your head, I don't think "six months as someone's puppet" or "the look on your face while Star Platinum was taking it out". I think about how I kicked the shit out of you and then put you through a thing that everyone said was impossible to survive, and in...like, hours, you were on your feet determined to go with us to Egypt.

When I think about those scars over your eyes, I think about how you fought to the very limit to get well and rejoin us.

The impression you make...is that you're someone who gets back up every time he's knocked down. If that's not reliable and tough, I don't know what is.