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Chapter 6

After calming everyone down, Jotaro told them to stay put and went to investigate the Egyptian exhibit. There were 3 artists representing each country with one artist being the premier artist for that country.

This was the artist he was looking for, Tenmei Zaki, who had just completed his thesis a couple of months before and, due to the art tour, was already highly sought after in the art world. Rohan had even complemented his work. Jotaro wondered who this guy could be to have painted his stand. Perhaps he had some kind of stand ability that allowed him to do...whatever it was he was doing. Jotaro hadn't been to Egypt in nearly 11 years. There was no way this guy had seen his or Joseph's stand.

He rounded a corner into the room where the Egyptian artists were set up and his heart leapt into his throat. There, front and center, were paintings of all six of them. Himself, the old man, Polnareff, Avdol, Iggy and Noriaki, all of them silhouetted with their stands behind them.

'No, Noriaki is fully depicted. He's not hidden like the rest of us.' Jotaro thought. 'What's this guy's obsession with you, Noriaki?'

It took him a good minute to calm himself before he fully entered the room. Hanging back a bit, he surveyed the others in the room and found an older man giving explanations about one of the paintings in Tenmei's collection. 'That must be him.' he thought.

Jotaro watched him, waiting until he was alone before approaching.

"Excuse me. Do you speak Japanese?"

The man turned and offered a smile, "Of course! It is not my best language but I get buy."

Jotaro nodded, "I was wondering where you got the inspiration for your paintings? They're fascinating, to say the least."

The man laughed, "Oh! I'm afraid you are mistaken, my boy. I am not the artist, that would be my son, Tenmei. I am Jabari Zaki. A pleasure to meet you." He said, offering his hand.

Jotaro shook his hand, "Jotaro Kujo. Do you know where he might be?"

"He went go get us a drink. He should be back soon if he didn't get distracted by all the art."

Before Jotaro could say anything else, a voice he hadn't heard in over a decade rang through the air, speaking some form of Arabic.

"Baba! I'm sorry it took so long. The vending machines here are so weird."

Jotaro' eyes were widened in shock as a tall redheaded man brushed past him and passed Jabari a bottle of water.

"Ahh! There you are. Thank you, Aljuru. Please, meet Jotaro Kujo. He wishes to ask about your work." Jabari said, waving a hand toward Jotaro.

Jotaro's heart seemed to stop when the man turned fully and looked up at him with beautiful lavender eyes. It was him. His hair was shorter in the back and styled a bit messy. He still had the weird hair noodle thing framing one side of his face, but it was Noriaki.

He was dressed in simple but formal black slacks and an almost knee length tunic like, long sleeve shirt that fit snug to his slender but still muscular frame. The shirt was almost the same green as his old school uniform and had subtle gold designs around the collar and continued down to a point midway to his waist. He also had in a pair of dangling cherry earrings.

Jotaro knew these to be new as the ones Noriaki had worn during their trip, now rested in a velvet lined box in his night stand. Aside from what seemed to be gallons of blood, those cherry earrings were all they had found in their search for Noriaki Kakyoin's body.

"Hello, Mr. Kujo." Tenmei said with a smile. He offered his hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Nor...Noriaki?"

"It's Tenmei, actually. Same kanji makes it confusing sometimes."

"Noriaki, what...why...Don't tell me you don't recognize me!" Jotaro demanded.

Tenmei took a step back. It was true, the man did seem familiar, "My apologies. Did we meet at one of the other exhibits? Tokyo, maybe?"

"Ten years, Noriaki. You don't remember me after all we went through? I thought you were dead!!"

Tenmei's eyes widened, "I knew you ten years ago?"

Jotaro scowled, "You painted me. You painted all of us. Of course you knew me. Why did you change your name? Were you hiding from us? What the hell Kakyoin?!"

Jabari put a hand on Tenmei's sholder, "Please, Mr. Kujo, do not be angry. He does not remember. Obviously you can see he is not my biological son. I found him on a street in Cairo, almost 11 years ago. He was nearly dead and had hit his head quite hard. I...helped him and nursed him back to health. When he woke, he had no memories of who he was or where he was from."

"You don't remember? Nothing at all? Me, the old man, the others? Nothing?" Jotaro asked softly.

Tenmei shook his head, "Sometimes I get images in my mind but its never more than that. Like looking at a blurry picture with no reference."

"You remembered our stands well enough."

"It's all I could see clearly. I painted exactly what I saw in my mind."

"You've been in Egypt this whole time?" he asked, voice breaking a bit.

"We actually live just a few kilometers from the street where baba found me." Tenmei replied. "You really know me? Who I was before? What happened to me?"

"Well, yeah."

"Were we friends?"

Jotaro's mind flashed back to the last time he spoke to the man standing before him. In a move completely out of character, he stepped forward and pulled a startled Tenmei into his arms, hugging him tight, "Yeah. Yeah, we were friends."

Tenmei returned the hug once the shock wore off and found himself moved to tears at finally having a chance for answers.

After a moment, though, he began to wonder if the large man holding him was ever going to let go.