Chapter Eight - The Ship

The next morning, it was quiet on the two boats, after rowing all night long on the sea. While all the crew members seemed asleep, on the other lifeboat, only (Y/N) was, the others only keeping their eyes closed. Her head was lightly resting on Jotaro's thick arm, but it didn't really seem like it was bothering him. After all, she deserved a short nap after healing every single one of everyone's wounds.

That wasn't actually Jotaro's only reason. Another one was the fact that she was always trying to help him, no matter how he treated her. Of course he had also heard her shouting that she believed in him, the other day. That was the thing that helped him concentrate all of his power into his fingers, to use the Star Fingers and defeat the captain. Besides that, (Y/N) was also kind of cute when she was sleeping.

Only Mr. Joestar and the stowaway, Anne, how she introduced herself, were up. The old man offered her some water.

"You guys are really creeps, you know that?" she said quietly, grabbing the water can. Anne took a big sip of water, then, when she looked away to the sea, she spitted it all out.

"Oi, don't spit that! It's the only water we have!" Mr. Joestar yelled surprised as well.

(Y/N) woke up from the loud noise. She rubbed her eyes yawning and stretching her back. Jotaro huffed frowning. 'Damn it, old man!' he thought, while the girl took her head off his arm.

"What's... What's going on?" she asked, but she only got to finish that sentence, because the little girl shouted.

"Guys, look!"

All the men opened their eyes and gasped when they saw a gigantic ship sailing behind them. It seemed weird that such a huge ship had responded to their 'call', but it was what it was. At least they could get out of those small lifeboats.

While they were drifting away to the stairs, Mr. Joestar felt some concern in Jotaro's eyes. "Are you worried that there might be a Stand user on this boat as well?" he asked his grandson. (Y/N), still sleepy, looked up at Jotaro to see if it really was something wrong. When he moved his eyes meeting hers, she realized that she the was actually staring at him, so she rapidly turned around, hiding her head between her shoulder.

"Not quite..." the student finally answered, looking away from (Y/N), at the old man. "Strange they lowered the stairs, but there's not a single soul to be seen anywhere."

As the small boat touched the stairs, Polnareff jumped out of it first. "This ship came all this way to rescue us! Some sort of crew has to be there!" he yelled, clenching his fist. "However, I don't care if they're all Stand users, I'm getting on this damn boat."

On one hand, (Y/N) was staying so uncomfortable on the lifeboat, she couldn't feel her legs anymore, so she really needed to get on that ship. On the other hand, Jotaro's statement left her full of thoughts. In the end, they all agreed that it was better to get onboard.

When they had to go over the edge of the boat in order to cross to the stairs, (Y/N's) legs felt week. Somehow, she was too afraid that she would fall into the cold water to be able to cross. Being left the last one after Kakyoin, he turned around and stretched out his arm.

"Don't be afraid, (Y/N)!" the pink haired student encouraged her with his soft voice, smiling. "Take my hand and jump!"

The girl looked at him, holding her arm next to her chest. She slowly stretched her arm, taking his, then jumped closing her eyes tightly. Even though she couldn't actually see if she made it to the stairs, she felt safe. When (Y/N) opened her eyes, she realized that she was on the stairs, but the reason she felt safe was that Kakyoin was holding her into his arms.

"See? I told you there is no reason to be afraid!" he said smiling, letting her go. The girl smiled back widely with her eyes closed as well, thanking him. (Y/N) ran upstairs, getting pass Jotaro, finally making it on board.

They all went upstairs, followed by the last boat's crew. While the sailors remained on the deck, the crusaders, along with Anne, decided to check the entire ship, to see if they could find any other people in there. Though, when they arrived into the control room, they were surprised to see the rudder controlling itself and nobody else being there at all.

"What's going on with this ship? There's no captain in the control room! No engender in the radio room!" Mr. Joestar exclaimed, stepping forward. "There's no-one anywhere!" However, even though they couldn't find anyone on the ghost ship, all it's gauges and machinery were working normally.

"Guys, come here!" Anne suddenly interrupted their search, pointing out another room.

In the dark room, there was an ape sitting behind the iron bars of a cage.

After looking at it for a second, Kakyoin spoke. "It's an orangutan."

Seeing the animal staring at them, made Mr. Joestar snap. "Who the hell cares about this damned ape?!"

"Mr. Joestar!" (Y/N) gasped, pointing Anne with her hand, trying to tell the old man that there were kids in there. She frowned.

Jotaro's grandfather sighed, grabbing the bridge of his nose. "Fine... Let's split up and find whoever's feeding this thing..."

The men got out of the room. When (Y/N) noticed that Anne stopped in the doorway, she turned around to see what she was waiting for. "Are you coming?" she asked the kid.

"Oh, uh, yeah..." the little girl answered, her eyes getting wider. (Y/N) noticed the terrified look on her face, but she supposed Anne was probably just afraid of the animal.

Outside, on the deck, Avdol and the rest of the crew members were trying to figure out what was the system of the ship. As Mr. Joestar looked up, he noticed that the lifting hook was moving out of nowhere. "Avdol, the sailor! Watch out!" he shouted as the hook attacked, going straight through the poor man's head and hanging him back up, from where the hook came from.

Anne shrieked, but (Y/N) didn't have enough time to run to her to make her stop looking at the hanged dead man. However, Jotaro covered the little girl's eyes with his hands. "Yare yare..." he sighed. "That isn't any way to greet someone, now is it?" the student asked around strongly.

(Y/N) sighed in relief, knowing that Jotaro covered Anne's eyes just in time. He couldn't have been that ignorant to let that little girl see what the others had to. 'I will never get you, Jotaro...' she thought looking at him.

The sailors froze when they saw big drops of blood falling from their colleague's body. "No-one was touching the controls... No-one touched that lever! The crane moved all by itself, I saw it!" one of the men stated loudly. Being normal people, it would've been hard to understand about that whole situation, but the crusaders knew that they once again had to deal with an enemy Stand user.

Mr. Joestar stepped in front of them, like a leader. "Hey, don't touch any of the machinery!" he told the sailors. "If you want to live, then you'll do exactly as I tell you!" It was clearly noticeable how stressed the poor old man was. "Get into the cabin below until I tell you otherwise! Everyone!" He turned his head to (Y/N) and spoke to her much softer. "(Y/N), please go take care of the kid, alright?" The girl nodded in agreement.

Anne was the only one to object. "I am old enough to take care of myself!"

When Mr. Joestar was ready to respond angrily, (Y/N) stopped him, putting her hand up, in front of her face. "It's okay, I'll handle it." she said smiling.

The girl stepped forward to the kid, stopping before her. "Look, don't take me as a nanny, take me as a friend or a bodyguard!" she spoke giggling.

The little girl looked at (Y/N) for a second then groaned loudly. "Fine!" She walked to the cabin with heavy steps, followed by the Stand user, who reassured the others once again that she could handle her, with a smile.

On the dark hallway, (Y/N) observed that Anne was walking slowly, thoughtful. She sighed and put her hand on the small girl's shoulder, kneeling down in front of her. "I know you don't understand what's going on, but I can tell you one thing..." The kid finally looked her in the eyes, probably waiting for the answer. "We are on your side, alright?" (Y/N) said smiling. Nodding repeatedly, the girl jumped into the student's arms, hugging her. It was crystal clear that Anne had been hiding her fear this whole time.

Once letting go, (Y/N) got up from the floor. "How about we go find a shower and take one, ay? You fell into salted water after all!" There were no comments, meaning that Anne was thinking the same. "Stay here and I'll come back immediately, after I find the showers! But don't move!"

"Hai!"

It didn't take that long to find the showers. They were one corner to the left, then one to the right. Even so, the ship was still absolutely huge, especially when you were on it. When she came back, (Y/N) found Anne exactly where she left her.

The little girl ran to the student when she saw her. "(Y/N), you won't believe what I just saw!" the kid spoke quickly. "That monkey was smoking and looking at pinups of girls!" She once again seemed terrified.

"What?! What were you doing there?! I told you to remain here and you went to that ape?! He could've attacked you!" (Y/N) groaned grabbing the bridge of her nose. "Let's just go to the showers, alright?" she asked rhetorically.

Anne didn't bring up the ape again, thinking that she had probably just imagined things. When they got to the shower room, (Y/N) decided that they would shower separately, so Anne could have her 'grown up woman' privacy. The girls took their clothes off leaving them on the floor, but far enough from where the water could go.

It was actually pleasant for the student to be finally able to relax for a second, while the hot water drops were going down her skin. It had been two or three days since she had taken a shower, so (Y/N) was also relieved that she didn't have to worry about how she smelled anymore.

However, her relaxing moment didn't last long, as she heard Anne's scream from the other side of the wooden wall. As her eyes widened, (Y/N) grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her wet body, then got out of the shower. The girl gasped when she saw the ape from earlier, not only staring, but touching the the poor naked kid. Gratefully, he did notice the young lady standing beside him at first.

She frowned. "Tsk, disgusting!" The ape turned around only to widen his eyes even more, at a sight of what seemed like an even much better looking girl. "That's no way of treating a young woman, you disgusting animal!" With no more talking, Pure Silence arose behind her, and hitting the ape with her sharp nails, she managed to injure him. He took some steps back.

Even so, he managed to get up, (Y/N's) confidence dropping. Her frowning face became fearful and her legs slowly started to shake. Just in time, when the orangutan attacked making the the girl shriek, she managed to hit him once again, right between the eyes with her Stand's claw-like nails. That only stopped the animal for a second, but just enough time for Jotaro to appear and hit him in the head with a lock.

"Jojo!" Anne exclaimed happily, going next to (Y/N).

On the other hand, the girl looked at the floor. She knew that she would've sounded more than immature if she had told him that she could have handled the ape herself, so she didn't. They both knew that she couldn't have. "Thanks... Jotaro..." she said after a short and awkward silence.

"Don't mention it." he said with a low tone, turning around to see the ape he had just hit, getting up. With his strong arm, he pushed the girls behind him. As the ape tried to hit the student with his leg, Star Platinum arose from Jotaro's back, blocking the attack. Too fast for the boy to notice, the fan on the ceiling got ripped off, flying in his direction. (Y/N) almost screamed and covered Anne's eyes when that thing cut deeply into Jotaro's shoulder, remaining there.

"J-jo..." (Y/N) stretched out her shaking hand, but she was stopped once again by the boy.

"Don't. I'm fine." he spoke with the same tone. Jotaro seemed calm about the fan that had just cut his shoulder, but the girl noticed his eyebrows twitching for a moment. He sighed. "So this ape is the Stand user... But, where is his Stand?" he talked to himself. When Jotaro tried to touch the fan to take it out of his muscle, the steel started moving.

The ape smirked and the fan hit Jotaro so hard in his face, he flew away through the closed steel door. Both girls called out his name, running to him. The window from the other side of the hallway suddenly broke, pieces of yellow glass flying to the student. Gratefully, Star caught all of them in time, but when he attacked the monkey back with them, he hit the wall.

(Y/N), Anne and Jotaro were watching confused the ape sinking into the wall and disappearing. None of them knew if they were just imagining everything, until Jotaro spoke. "Oi, you saw that too, right?" He didn't turn around to face them, but the two girls nodded. The bulky student closed his eyes for a moment after telling them to stay next to him. Just then (Y/N) realized that she had never seen this protective side of him.

After a second of looking at the wall, it finally hit her. "Jotaro." (Y/N) interrupted the boy's thoughts. He didn't face her, mostly ignoring the girl, but she didn't mind it that time. "What if..."

The students eyes widened. "This freighter is the Stand!" they both exclaimed at the same time. Right after saying that, the ship started shaking. Some pipes came from behind, getting wrapped around the two students and their Stands, pinning them onto the wall, but leaving the kid aside. "C-crap..." Jotaro cursed. The ape came out of the wall, this time dressed into a white captain suit.

(Y/N's) whole body was tense. It was great the she had had tied up the towel around her, but it was slowly starting to fall. She had to control her breathing in order to remain as still as possible. She wished Jotaro would find a way of escaping faster, but in the same time she knew she couldn't leave it all to him.

She flinched when the ape started licking his mouth as he was looking at the poor little girl. 'This animal wants one thing and it's fucking disgusting...' she thought, while Pure Silence was taking out one of her small round earrings. The Stand launched it in the air, hitting the orangutan with its needle, but only scratching him.

Jotaro immediately understood her plan, following it. More than furious because of them bothering him, the animal jumped to attack (Y/N). When he saw his chance, Jotaro took it, by using his Star Fingers. His Stand's fingers hit the earring making it fly out of the ape's hand and ending up into his head.

The orangutan trew himself to the ground crying out loud in pain. With no moment of hesitation and a "yare yare", Jotaro easily got out from pipes' grip, freeing (Y/N) as well. The two frowning students, along with their Stands behind them, stepped forward to the screaming animal. Leaning against the corner of the wall, screaming, the ape ripped off his captain suit, showing them his belly.

"I've heard frightened animals expose their bellies as a display of submission... Are you asking me to forgive you?" Hearing Jotaro's last words made (Y/N) huff. She knew the student wasn't that stupid to believe him. Standing in front of her, with his hands into his pants pockets, the boy continued. "I don't think so..."

Star Platinum punched the animal leaving him flying through another door, but the ship suddenly started deforming. Grabbing his cap, Jotaro turned around. "This ship is going down..." (Y/N) pulled Anne closer to her. "Put on your clothes and let's get back to the lifeboats."

The two girls did as he said, then they all got on the deck and moved back to the lifeboats with the others.

There, (Y/N) helped everyone with they minor to major wounds, all the work exhausting her. She was barely holding her eyes open, but she managed to stay awake while the others were talking. They were all watching the big ship transforming into a shabby little boat.

"Such a terrifying power..." Avdol said amazed.

"We were helpless right there." Mr. Joestar continued. "If Jotaro and (Y/N) hadn't figured it out, we would've been done for!"

(Y/N) hummed as Jotaro got out a cigarette. "Damn it, the cig is soaked!" he exclaimed with his usual low voice.

"You'll stay here enough time for them to dry, Jojo!" Polnareff joked while chewing gum. He offered the others some of it too, but they refused.

Yawning, (Y/N) looked into her skirt's pocket. Fortunately, her pack of cigarettes was still there, intact. She took it out and after opening it, she offered Jotaro one. He looked at her confused. "What?" she asked.

His face looked like he was going to burst into a deep laugher. "Since when do you smoke?"

'I'm too tired to deal with your shit right now, Jotaro...' she thought rolling her eyes. Why did he always have to be like that? "I only smoke when I'm alone or I need to." she answered annoyed.

"And why is it that you smoke the exact same cigs as I do?" If Jotaro thought people around him were annoying, then he hadn't heard himself.

"These are the only cigarettes at the convenience store!" she almost snapped. (Y/N) sighed. "Take it or leave it." The two were one next to another, looking eachother in the eyes. (Y/N's) arm was still stretched out with the small box.

After a good minute, Jotaro finally reacted. "Pf, fine!" he huffed and took one of her cigarettes. The girl did the same, then she put the small pack back into her pocket. While Jotaro asked Avdol for a flame, (Y/N) used her Pure Silence's speed to light up her cigarette. Unfortunately, that was the last use of power she could bare, so immediately after taking a long, deep breath from the cigarette, the girl's eyes closed, her body falling numb.

The others gasped and yelled her name, but Jotaro caught her with his arm just in time, before she could fall into the water. "Yare yare dawa..." he said pulling her back into the boat. Kakyoin suddenly noticed when her head fell on Jotaro's arm.

"I can take her off you, if you want, Jojo." the pink haired guy offered himself. He knew Jotaro didn't really like being touched by others, so he was a bit afraid the student would get annoyed by the girl.

"It's fine." the other one answered simply.

Kakyoin's eyes widened a bit. "Are you sure? If she's a burden to you, then..."

"I said I'm fine!" Jotaro snapped, cutting the boy's sentence off.

The other men and little girl looked surprised and were confused by Jotaro's reaction to his friend's offer. They all had some theories about what was going on in there, but they kept quiet, only their mouth corners lifting up a bit. Letting him be, Kakyoin went back to his book, muttering something, but quiet enough so no-one could hear him. Even though (Y/N) woke up from the black haired student's shout, she couldn't stand awake for more then ten seconds, immediately falling back asleep.

As he finished his cigarette, Jotaro noticed that the girl hadn't finished hers, the cigarette still being hold in her small hand. Not caring about anyone's opinion, he took it, putting it into his mouth and taking a deep breath. The cigarette had a vague taste of lipstick, but it wasn't really bothering.

"Yare yare..." he lastly said, before finishing that one as well. He put both cigarette butts into his pocket, crossed his arms to his chest without moving the girl's head, then closed his eyes. 'I need a break...'