False Confidence ; Jotakak

Your Lungs are Alive, but You're Living in Hell

CW~ Swearing, A Trans Character is Almost Outed

"You boys must have fallen asleep early last night; I tried to knock on the door, let you know we were going for dinner, and couldn't hear a peep!" Mister Joestar said as he scooped some scrambled eggs into his mouth.

"Yeah, we fell asleep as soon as we got in." I lied. I could see Jotaro's smirk out of the corner of my eye.

"Well, I'm glad you got some rest because we've got a huge day ahead. We're sailing over to the UAE. I've got us all boarding passes; we'll be there tomorrow mid-day. We're leaving as soon as we finish here."

I felt the pain of hunger but had no appetite. I was experiencing some kind of hangover, or at least a post-high come down that put me off balance.

"We're getting back on a boat? After what happened last time?" Polnareff said. "We're not cutting through the Iran and Iraq to get to Egypt that way?"

Mister Joestar shook his head. "No, too much conflict going on there, ever since the Revolution. They'll probably ask Kakyoin to cover his hair." He laughed.

My heart sank. I had longer hair, and it was dyed, probably a bit more traditionally feminine than what was fashionable for American guys. I understood that was what the joke was implying, but at that moment, I couldn't help but feel emasculated.

Jotaro looked up from his breakfast. "That feels racist, old man." He muttered.

"What." His grandfather whined in response.

"I don't know; I'm just getting that pissed off feeling I get whenever you start talking like Rudyard Kipling."  Jotaro grabbed a mango from the fruit bowl.

"Hey, I happen to like Kipling!" Mister Joestar undid the napkin from his collar. "He had a lot of nice things to say about you Orientals."

"Us what?" Jotaro's knuckles dug into the mango.

Polnareff laughed awkwardly. "Okay, okay. Uh—we should probably get going! We don't want to miss the boat!" He got up from the table, pushed in his chair and headed for the door. Jotaro followed suit, not before throwing his napkin in his grandfather's food. I slowly rose, waiting for Mister Joestar. Who sighed as he got to his feet.

The boat was a sailboat, not big enough for much more besides us and our luggage. Ideal, making it harder for a stand user to sneak aboard. We'd hired the boat from a vendor on the harbour, with plans to return it to his cousin's port in UAE. The voyage was uneventful, to everyone's surprise. We made it without chaos, with Mister Joestar handling the sails. During the day, Polnareff stripped down to his trunks and began sunbathing on the deck. "Gentlemen! Come join me! The sun is marvellous!"

"You want sunscreen?" I asked; I was in the middle of applying some myself.

"No, no, no sunscreen. I'm trying to catch a tan."

Jotaro scoffed. "You're French; you're going to catch a sunburn."

He looked at us from over his sunglasses. "—okay, maybe just a little." I threw him the bottle.

Later, Jotaro and I sat under the shade of the sails, looking into the water. The water was crystal clear, and we could see all the fish, coral, and life that lurked below. Jotaro spoke to me all about it; I learnt a lot, like that a bit further south, towards India, we could see a lot more coral. Whenever I noticed something interesting, I'd point it out, and Jotaro would know what it was. We saw plenty of tuna, large schools of sardines, billfish, moonfish, and something called wahoo. As the sun began to set, I saw one of the most bizarre things on our trip that didn't have to do with stands and their users. It was like a hippopotamus, but with a totally flat face, and the body of a whale.