Chapter Thirty-seven: the desert is dangerous

After leaving Pakistan, the group traveled by boat to the United Arab Emirates. (Y/n) was quite happy that everything turned out well. She did not like to see her friends in pain. The girl was sitting on Polnareff's shoulder as the group wandered about, Kakyoin was close behind. The girl hugged Polnareff's head, "So how was your first sight of hamon?" "It was pretty interesting. That energy is the only thing that can kill you?," Kakyoin inquired and got a cheery nod from the girl. "Yep. But the old man knows that I am not like my father, so there is no need to hurt me. Besides, hurting a child is against warrior honor policy.," the plum haired pillar child said and looked to Joseph, "Right, old man Jojo?" "Ha! It's been a long time since I heard anyone call me that.," the old man laughed, "But yes. Hurting children is against the rules."
"Are you feeling any effects of the flesh bud?," Polnareff asked. "None at all. I think I got it in time.," Joseph said as he allowed hamon sparks to crackle between his fingers. The silver haired Frenchman felt the girl grip his head more like she was scared. "Mr. Joestar, I think you are scaring (y/n).," Polnareff spoke. "Oh, sorry. I forgot about that aversion to hamon that you have.," the old man said as the girl glared back at him.

The group made its way to a car dealership. Joseph was buying a car. Kakyoin and Jotaro waited outside and Polnareff was flirting with a saleswoman. (Y/n) wandered around with her porcelain doll in her arms, she was watching all the humans around her. Human businesses were weird. She walked over to Polnareff and looked up at him and the woman he was talking to, "Pol pol. What are you doing big brother, are you flirting again?" The woman laughed as Polnareff looked down at the little girl. She was pretending to be a naive human child. She had an innocent pose and face going on. The Frenchman sighed and was smacked in the back of the head by Joseph. The folder that Joseph slapped him with messed up his hair. The woman he was talking to laughed a little more.
"Sorry to interrupt, but we need to go, Polnareff.," Joseph spoke. "Mr. Joestar! Watch the hair! It takes a lot of work to style it perfectly!," Polnareff complained. (Y/n) jumped up onto Polnareff's shoulder and hugged his head, making it hard for him to fix his long silvery hair. Polnareff sighed as he walked behind Joseph. He had to drive. "Old man, why can't you drive? Did your license get suspended?," the little girl asked. Joseph did not answer. It was a nice car that Joseph bought. But it was not going to survive going across the desert... so what was he planning? The car was comfortable. There was air conditioning. (Y/n) sat in Kakyoin's lap as they rode through the area, each house was very fancy and kind of reminded the child of the temples she and her family would stay at in the old days.

"All of these houses are so fancy, they are like mansions.," Polnareff commented. Joseph was looking at a map, "Yeah. This is the norm here. This used to be just desert, but the oil business made this place rich and turned it into a dream city." "Reminds me of the temples and cities that my father would have us stay at.," (y/n) spoke up, "He always had pretty luxurious tastes." She felt Kakyoin look behind them, like he was looking for someone following them. Jotaro questioned him and got the answer that Kakyoin felt like someone was following them.
The red haired teen poked the little girl's cheek, "(y/n), Can you sense someone following us?" The child used her horn to look around, she was able to use it again thanks to Dan's blood healing her completely. "No. I cannot feel anything in my eighteen meter range, if we are being followed, they are staying out of my range.," (y/n) said as she looked out the back window, "That would mean that Dio is aware of my power to sense stand users." "I sometimes feel like we are being watched too, then I remember that (y/n) can tell if they are enemies or not by stand energy.," Polnareff said with a smile. Joseph showed the teens in the back the map he was holding, "I was thinking that we should get to a village named Yarpline and get a Cessna there. We can use the Cessna to cross the desert. I will pilot it once we get it." "I could go on ahead through the desert at night.," the plum haired pillar child said, "It is safe to travel in the cooler air of the mornings and evenings."

"No, you're staying with us.," Joseph said. "I don't want to be in your fourth plane crash.," the little girl said. Jotaro pulled his hat over his eyes, "I agree with (y/n). I don't want to be in a plane with a man who has survived three crashes." Joseph looked mad at the two before sighing, "Anyways, we are going to be using Camels to cross the desert to get to Yarpline." "Camels?!," Polnareff shouted, "A Cessna is one thing, but camels?! I've never ridden a camel before!" Joseph laughed and said that he would show them what to do. "Old man, I will smack you if you said you saw how to ride a camel in a movie.," the small voice of the little girl said.
It was just as the child feared. He was using the new car that he bought to trade for camels and supplies. He did not know anything about camels. He was able to get four camels and was trying to show the others how to get on them. (Y/n) watched him make a fool of himself. "I saw how to do this on a movie.," Joseph said and flinched when he felt a tiny foot hit the back of his head. The girl took the reigns and pulled down on them on Kakyoin's camel while she held up an apple that she found in one of the supply sacks. The camel lay down and munched on the apple as she motioned to it, "get on." Kakyoin did get on after he put on a cloak as protective gear to shield himself from the sun's rays.

(Y/n) saw movement behind them and looked back, a shadow disappeared behind a rock. She did not feel anyone other than her companions nearby. 'I need to have my eyes checked.,' she thought to herself, 'These shadow hallucinations are getting worse.' She went to investigate the trees and rocks she saw the shadow at. Nothing very suspicious except a shine off in the distance. The girl looked to try and see what it was, but she was being called back to the group. All of them were on their camels and ready to go. Joseph was waving the girl over to get her to get on one of the camels. The child looked back to where she saw the shine then jumped to the camels, landing on Kakyoin's back.
"That was a big leap.," the teen chuckled as he and the others set off on the camels into the desert. (Y/n) crawled from his back to sitting with her back against his stomach. She was comfortable against Kakyoin. The desert was not that interesting. The young pillar did not sense much life besides the group she was with. There were some small animals but that was it. 'Why couldn't Dio choose the beach?,' the little girl thought to herself, 'Why did he have to pick Egypt?' She looked around, Kakyoin kept looking back. "Is something wrong Kakyoin?," Joseph asked. "I get this feeling like we are being followed.," the red haired teen answered. Everyone looked back, Jotaro used star platinum to look back to look for something. "(Y/n). Can you sense anything?," Polnareff asked. (Y/n) shook her head, "No. But earlier I saw something shine."

The group continued when Jotaro said he did not see anything. (Y/n) jumped down from the camel and let the group get a little ways away before making a big jump like her father showed her how to. The way she and her family used to travel. She landed near the group and jumped again, getting further from them. The wind she was getting from this felt good. It was so hot. Her horn began to light up with feeling, she sensed a stand. The child stopped and looked around, her red eyes seemed to glow from the light of the sun reflecting off them. She looked off to the west and saw the sun setting. It should be cooler. Why was it so hot?
She let the others get closer, "I feel a stand. It feels pretty big." The group looked down at her and looked around. "I don't see anything.," Polnareff said, "Maybe you're on edge after having your horn broken and repaired." The plum haired girl gave him a glare, "listen, I think you guys are not taking this seriously-" "The sun is still up, we'll rest when the sun goes down.," Joseph said, "(y/n), tell us if you sense any change in the stand." They rode the camels off. They all looked like they were getting hot. It could have been that they were just angry from the heat. The girl looked into the sky. It was a beautiful starry night. But it was so damn hot. She sighed and jumped after them. If they were not going to listen to her, she would not tell them.

She kept jumping and running to keep up with the camels. (Y/n) saw Polnareff hold out a canteen for her to get as she jumped near him, a small hop and she took the mostly full canteen from the Frenchman. The girl took a sip and looked up at the stars, she smiled. It was a pretty night. She felt someone's eyes on her, she looked around and saw nothing. The girl took a sip again and saw the group had stopped. They were looking at the thermometer then their watches. Had they finally figured it out yet? She looked at the stars again before walking over, "It is night."
The men looked down at her then up to the sky, "There is a sun in the sky." "Stand.," the little girl said, "I don't feel the user nearby. So it must be a long ranged stand." The heat was becoming opressing. "We were careless!," Joseph shouted, "hide behind those rocks!" Polnareff jumped down from his camel and grabbed the child before dashing behind the rocks. He held the tiny girl to his chest and ducked to protect her. "I felt like we were being watched, but I did not see it at all!," Kakyoin said, "He has to be out of (y/n)'s range like she said before." "This bastard is planning to boil us alive like octopuses. Even putting little (y/n) in danger!," Polnareff said with anger in his tone. "I can survive this by going to sleep and turning into stone.," (y/n) spoke, "But I'm afraid that if something is not done. That all of you will die."

"No. It will not take that long. It is dangerous to even stay in a sauna for more than thirty minutes.," Joseph said. "Then how can we fight it?!," Polnareff asked as he wiped the sweat from his forehead and checked the temperature, "Dammit! It is over seventy degrees Celsius! Not to mention that we don't know how far the stand is!" "The user has to be close, not a long ranged one. The longer the range, the weaker the stand.," Joseph said, "It will not be like the lovers." The heat kept getting worse the camels collapsed, plants withered, a scorpion was turned to dust. The girl peeked over the rocks and looked around, she saw a flash in the distance again. Something was shiny.
Kakyoin called out his Hierophant to check how far away the stand was. He got to one hundred meters before the energy changed. Kakyoin made his stand use emerald splash to protect himself with, it did not seem to work. The red haired teen was covered in many cuts along his body. The stand they were fighting, it was attacking with much ferocity. Rocks were breaking around them, Polnareff used his own body to protect the child in his arms. One of the camels got hit, the water tanks were broken. Polnareff called his own stand out to defend himself and the little girl with.

Jotaro stood and called out Star Platinum, "I'm making a cave to hide in! Get down!" Rocks flew around the group. Polnareff kept the little girl under him as he shielded her. The heat was pretty unbearable. It was so hot. The men were all sweating and panting. Joseph turned to Kakyoin, "Are you okay?" "I was in the middle of emerald splash, that protected me..," Kakyoin replied, "But... it is so hot. I feel like I'm going crazy." (Y/n) heard a small Crack sound from her bags. Something was broke or cracked. Polnareff panted and spoke, "Those attacks were perfectly timed. That means the enemy was definitely watching us." (Y/n) felt squished under the Frenchman, she sighed and went over all of the information in her head. The shiny thing, she did not see anyone else, the attacker was out of her sensory range, it controlled heat.
'I have a feeling the stand user has something to do with that flash of light I saw before.,' the little girl thought to herself. She saw a shadow under a rock that looked humanoid, but the shadow was somewhat see-through. Was this another hallucination? The shadow seemed to point to a rock across from the one it was hiding under. The same rock was on the other side, only reversed... Joseph pulled a canteen out and saw it had a hole in it, he shouted 'shit!' and threw the canteen out into the sun. (Y/n) looked at the canteen she was holding and pulled on Joseph's shirt, she held it up to him when he looked back. He took it and took a drink from it. It was getting even hotter.

Joseph had Jotaro give him the binoculars to look out of. The binoculars were broke by the stand, frustrating Joseph even more. "Son of a bitch!," Joseph yelled, "Where are you? How are you watching us?!" The heat was boiling. (Y/n) felt some sweat drip off of Polnareff and onto her horn, "eww." The girl looked to the rocks again. Those rocks. Something was wrong. Something was telling her that this was not normal. The shadow was still under one rock and pointing to the other. The girl looked as close as she could before she saw it. A mirror image.
She let out a snicker, that was it. Those times she saw a flash was the sun reflecting off of a mirror. "Look over there.," the little girl said and pointed to the rocks. Kakyoin started to laugh, followed by Polnareff and Jotaro. Joseph began to think the younger men and the little girl lost it before Kakyoin explained what it was. "It is a mirror trick.," Kakyoin said with a chuckle. "I saw the flash from the mirror a few times before I saw what it was.," the little girl said with a giggle. "That's so stupid. How did we fall for it?," Polnareff said with a hearty laugh. Jotaro climbed up to the mouth of the cave and grabbed a rock that Star Platinum threw at the mirror and the stand user behind it.

They heard a yelp from behind the mirror. The air began to immediately cool before it became pretty cold. The little girl left the cave and looked at the sky, "It's so beautiful out here, away from the light pollution!" She got a pat on the head from Joseph. He looked down at the girl with eyes that were somewhat saddened. She knew something was up. The group went to check out the stand user as the little girl checked on the camels. They were okay, (y/n) did what she could to patch up the injured camel. It was getting more and more dangerous for everyone.
Joseph made everyone spend the night there before they went to the town of Yarpline. The group was able to clean up and rest in Yarpline overnight. (Y/n) let herself fall asleep in the town as she was curled up near Kakyoin and Polnareff. She did not need to sleep, she just wanted to.

(Y/n)'s red eyes opened and looked around. She found herself in a colorful amusement park. She was on a castle. The sound of a crying baby caught her ears. She looked around more. It was a beautiful park. The little girl got up and jumped down from the castle roof and landed lightly. She wondered where everyone was. Shouldn't there be other people here? Where was the others? Where was Polnareff and Kakyoin? She tried to use her horn, but she could not sense anything. Balloons floated around her and she saw confetti fall from the popped balloons. It was really pretty!
The baby's crying did not stop. She heard a scream coming from the ferris wheel. She looked up to see what looked like Kakyoin up there. He was screaming in terror! The little girl tried to run to the ferris wheel, only to be grabbed by the roots of the bushes that grew near her. She saw a bright flash of a blade.

Polnareff woke the child up by tapping her face and horn, her red eyes opened to see his blue ones. "Wake up, princess.," Polnareff chuckled with a friendly grin. The little girl rolled off of the couch she was sleeping on and into the arms of the silver haired Frenchman. (Y/n) stretched and hugged the man's head, "Morning pol pol." The red haired teen was holding his head and looked to be in distress. Polnareff picked up his bag and walked off with the little girl on his shoulder. He grabbed a bite to eat before he went to the airport, Kakyoin got ready and followed.
"Jotaro and mister Joestar have already headed to the plane, we just need to go there and we'll be on our merry way!," Polnareff said with a happy tone. (Y/n) was glad they were getting closer to their destination, yet she was beginning to dread the final battle. They already lost Avdol and Dio was much much stronger than any human that they've come across. There was no doubt that Dio had a stand that matched his vampiric power. The girl smelled blood and looked over to see a horrible sight. A dog that had been brutally killed. The dog's owner, a small boy, was crying over the corpse. Kakyoin seemed even more distressed. It was horrible, but they needed to keep moving.

The pillar child heard a commotion up ahead and saw that Joseph and a man were conversing. The three came up behind Jotaro and Polnareff asked Jotaro what was going on. "An argument over who gets to use the plane.," Jotaro replied. It seemed like a baby had gotten sick and needed to be flown to a doctor since there was no doctor in town. Joseph was becoming agitated by what was happening and began to argue more with the man he was buying the plane from. The woman who was holding the baby offered that they could take the baby with them. (Y/n) looked at the baby, for an instant, she saw fangs and yellow eyes. This was not a normal baby. She felt slight stand energy from the infant. It creeped her out.
But no matter, they had to go! They needed to get to their next destination! All of them got into the Cessna and Joseph piloted the craft. Polnareff tried to calm everyone by telling them that there was no way a stand user would attack them in the air. Jotaro looked back at him, "I'm not as worried about stand users as much as the old man's flying." Joseph gave his grandson a small glare before he took off, he looked back to the little girl. "(Y/n), I want you to go back to Japan once we get to somewhere with an airport.," the man said, "It's getting too dangerous and DIO has shown an interest in you for some reason."

"I'm trying to figure out if it is out of brotherly concern or because he knows that I have some sort of power.," the little girl spoke. Joseph looked back to the skies, "Either way, you need to get as far away from Egypt as possible. You don't have a stand and I fear that the stands will only get worse. Plus we don't know what DIO's stand does." The plum haired girl puffed her cheeks as Kakyoin held her. "Hold on, if we make her go home, we lose our stand radar.," Polnareff said, "She's saved us a few times with her power." The old man flying the plane sighed, "I know she has. But I have to think of her safety as much as our own, she needs to go back to Japan or to America."
Polnareff looked down to the little girl who had puffed up cheeks, "It's been fun, petite pilier." "I don't want to go Pol pol.," the little girl said, "You can't stop me from following, old man!" The silver haired Frenchman laughed before yawning, "Man, I always get sleepy on planes. Mr. Joestar, I'm going to nap for a bit." "Go ahead.," Joseph said back, "Both of you get some rest."

(Y/n) looked at the baby, he looked to be asleep, but she could sense that the infant was actually awake. His eyes opened and he looked up to the two men on either side of him. His yellowish eyes met with the little girl's red ones. Her horn detected stand energy coming from him, but she did not sense it inside the plane with them. This confused her. The baby waved his arms in the air like he was playing, something was off. The girl settled against Kakyoin and gave the baby the side eye.
She relaxed a bit and closed her eyes, yet she did not go to sleep. She was going to observe what was happening. A smell hit her nose. The smell of a dirty diaper. "(Y/n) Can you wake Polnareff up?," Joseph asked, "The baby's diaper needs to be changed." The plum haired pillar pulled at the Frenchman's cheek, "Pol pol. Wake up." Polnareff woke up and rubbed his eyes, "Wha?" "Polnareff, change the baby's diaper. (Y/n) will help you.," Joseph said. For a second, (y/n) thought she heard the baby click his tongue. Polnareff was holding his head and looked shaken. "Is something wrong, Pol pol?," the little pillar asked. "I felt like I had a terrible dream.," Polnareff said almost in a daze before he and the child changed the baby's diaper. It was kind of easy since they had practice with younger siblings.

Kakyoin began to thrash soon after they changed the baby. He was pretty violent with his thrashing and knocked the steering wheel out of Joseph's hands. The plane went down, but Joseph was able to keep it from crashing by using hermit purple and his hamon. A huge wave of pain washed over the little girl, so this was the agony that Wamuu was in. She barely bit back the scream of pain she wanted to release. Glowing wounds appeared all over her body as the plane had a second impact and crashed. Joseph Joestar plane crash tally: 4.
The pillar girl was pulled from the plane by Jotaro after he saw the melty wounds on her, Joseph saw and was apologizing profusely to the little girl who started to cry from the pain. The old man felt a pain in the back of his head like someone had smacked him. He did not see anyone when he turned to look who it was. (Y/n) was set down on a bed roll to rest and recover from her hamon wounds while the others got the camp ready.

Her red eyes looked at the glowing wounds and reached into one of her bags to get Wamuu's horn from the bag. She found it and pulled it out, hearing something fall onto the ground behind her. The girl looked behind her and found the celestial themed circlet on the ground, her mother's circlet that her father made as a gift. She picked up the gold jewelry and looked at it. It had a part that looked like fabric streamers could be attached to it. Similar to the ones she wore a long time ago when she went into hibernation and woke up in. She wondered if the Speedwagon foundation still had her circlet that had those pretty decorative fabrics on it. More than likely they did.
She turned the circlet over in her hands to examine it, she read the message on it that was once for her mother. There was a word on the edge of the main piece that had a stylized sun on it. The word was Ivory. Ivory. What could that mean? She remembered that her father and uncle Esidisi used to have a saying that they would regularly say that had the word 'Ivory' in it. Wamuu always looked a little sad when he looked at an ivory figure of a woman that her father kept. Did that word have something to do with her mother? Could this possibly be her mother's name?

She heard the men talk a bit before Jotaro nudged her gently and offered her a drink from the cup he was holding, "Feeling better?" (Y/n) looked down at the wound on her arm that was slowly closing. Her usually bright red eyes looked pretty sad. "I'll take that as a no.," the Japanese teen said and sat down by the girl. His ocean green eyes looked at the horn and the circlet she was holding, "what are those?" She let him take the circlet from her. "This horn belonged to my uncle, Wamuu.," the little girl said, "That circlet was my mother's."
Jotaro gave the circlet back, "It is nice." "My father made it for my mother. I can tell by the mark right here.," the girl said and pointed to a tiny mark on the edge. Jotaro looked and made a small hum. "Although I don't want you to go, I understand why the old man is telling you to leave.," the teen said and patted the girl's head, "You've helped us much. But now that DIO is targeting you, we have to keep you away from him." "I've faced him before. Dio...," (y/n) began to speak then quieted down because she started to cry, "Dio changed so much. I can hardly recognize him from the boy I knew over one hundred years ago. He was not always like this. He was clever and charming." The little girl pulled out the picture she carried with her and showed it to Jotaro, "We were family. All four of us. I love them."
Jotaro saw the little girl start to cry, tears streamed down her face. He put his arm over her, he did not speak, but sat there with his hand over her. "It's all my fault.," the little girl said between sobs, "Dio is like this because of me. I am the one who had the mask who turned him into a vampire, he changed because he envyed the power I had! I wanted it to not be my fault but it is! I'm sorry!" All four of the men listened to the wounded child crying.

The night sky was beautiful. But the feelings that circled the campsite were grim.

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