In the everyday world, in Morioh...
The hapless high schooler Josuke Higashikata and Okuyasu Nijimura were on their way to school. Even as Stand users, they still couldn't escape the clutches of education.
"Ah~~~~~" Okuyasu Nijimura let out a yawn, tears pooling in the corners of his eyes as he spoke in a sleepy voice, "I'm so tired... I stayed up way too late playing games last night. After we buy ice cream, let's just skip class, Josuke."
Josuke Higashikata raised his hand to shut it down instantly: "No way. If I skip on a Monday and my mom finds out, she'll dock my allowance again... Broke-as-hell Josuke-kun can't take that kind of hit."
Even though he'd secretly pocketed an 18 million yen kickback, he didn't dare touch that credit card. His wallet only had 12 yen left—if he kept skipping, things would really go south!
"Your mom's pretty strict, huh? Anyway, even if you skip, your grades are still pretty good, right?" Okuyasu Nijimura sighed, his peripheral vision catching a tall man in a white coat not far away. "Huh? Isn't that Mr. Jotaro?"
!!!
"Yeah, it really is Mr. Jotaro." Following Okuyasu's gaze, Josuke Higashikata waved and called out, "Mr. Jotaro, good morning—!"
Jotaro adjusted the brim of his hat, strode over quickly, and spoke slowly: "Perfect timing. I was just looking for you two."
"What's up? Don't tell me another Stand user showed up?"
"No... it's about Jolyne..."
Jotaro took a deep breath, rubbed his temples, and began to explain the situation.
...
When Yoshikage Kira used Bites the Dust to loop time back to this morning, as Jolyne was slinging her schoolbag over her shoulder to head out...
Seeing Jolyne hadn't taken her lunch, Jotaro hurriedly grabbed the bento and chased after her: "Jolyne, your lunch. Don't go hungry."
"Yare yare daze, you old man!" Jolyne didn't even look back, resolutely leaving the house. "From now on, don't worry about my lunch!"
Star Platinum: The World!
Time ceased to flow...
Jotaro silently slipped the bento into Jolyne's bag and returned to his original position.
"Then, time resumes."
"Yare yare daze..." Facing Jolyne's inexplicable rebelliousness, Jotaro couldn't help but sigh.
Star Platinum suddenly appeared, patting the somewhat dejected Jotaro on the back with a couple of "Ora ora" comforts.
Which only made him look even more pitiful!
...
"So, do you guys know why Jolyne's always so randomly rebellious?" The old father Jotaro was heartbroken over his daughter.
Could it be... inherited?
Seeing Jotaro in a bad mood, Josuke Higashikata wisely kept quiet and instead chose to throw his comrade under the bus to redirect the heat.
"Uh, Mr. Jotaro, we don't really know much about little Jolyne. Maybe ask Mr. Dio about it?" Josuke suggested quietly. "After all, Jolyne always seems really happy when she's playing with Mr. Dio..."
Me, Jotaro Kujo, having to go ask the Joestar family's lifelong enemy Dio for advice on how to get along with my own daughter?
His mind flashed again with the image of Jolyne happily letting Diego braid her hair.
"Mm..."
...
The perspective shifted to the Hori household...
"Go for it, Sota! You can do it, jump over quick!" Diego stood on the sofa encouraging him. The two were playing the game where the floor was all lava.
Sota hesitated, the distance he could usually cross easily now feeling infinitely stretched. He explained anxiously: "It's too hard! It's so far!"
Just then, Hori—fully recovered—had finished making breakfast and called from the kitchen toward the living room: "Sota, time for breakfast and getting ready for school."
A few minutes later, seeing Sota still hadn't come over, Hori frowned and walked to the living room to hurry him.
The moment Sota saw Hori, he shouted in shock: "Why can big sis stand in the lava?"
"It's magic! She used magic that lets her stand in lava without getting hurt!" Diego reacted instantly.
"So childish. I cast the magic on both of you. Hurry up and come eat!" Hori stuck out her tongue and did a magical girl wand-waving pose.
Knock knock knock...
A knock came at the door. Diego looked up in surprise—because in his perception, the visitor was Jotaro Kujo, the person least likely to come looking for him voluntarily.
Diego hopped off the sofa, stepped into the "lava zone," walked to the entrance, opened the door, and teased: "Yo, the Joestar family's war god himself."
"Shouldn't have come to you." Jotaro adjusted his hat brim and turned to leave.
"Hey, wait a sec!" The cheeky bastard Diego used one of his countless flashes of speed to block Jotaro, grinning as he asked, "Spill it, spill it. Rare for you to come to me on your own."
Jotaro stood silently in place. Though concern for Jolyne had overridden his pride, actually facing Diego made the words stick in his throat.
After a long silence, he turned his face away and haltingly forced out: "You... know why... Jolyne... is always... so inexplicably rebellious?"
"Huh?"
Is this funny? All I see is a desperate father heartbroken over bonding with his daughter.
Even with the invincible Star Platinum, he completely can't read his daughter's mind.
"Oh~~~ I get it. You want to know how to get along better with Jolyne, right?" Diego raised an eyebrow, an evil idea bubbling up. He snapped his fingers confidently. "You came to the right guy. The mutual exchange between hearts is a truly wondrous thing. Let me impart the secret to getting along with Jolyne. If it doesn't work, you can beat me up—I promise I won't fight back."
"I'll give you Ko no Dio no myōmyō kinpō. Jolyne can use it right after school, and I guarantee instant results."
Screw you, Jotaro. If I can 101% help you, I'm not Dio!
No-Manners·Bro officially online. Having finally caught a chance to screw over Jotaro, Diego naturally had no intention of helping wholeheartedly—at least he'd make him lose some face.
"First..."
After hearing Diego out, Jotaro showed an extremely disgusted expression, full of distrust: "You sure you're not just doing this to humiliate me?"
If this were the Dio he knew back then, lying came as naturally as breathing.
"I stake my personal dignity on it. Besides, what's wrong with losing face? What father doesn't lose some dignity bonding with his daughter? Are you scared? If that's all the resolve you've got, I advise you to forget about bonding..."
"Fine, I'll trust you this once..."
Heh heh heh!
Plan: success!
Got him!
Only later did Jotaro learn that Diego had thrown away things like personal dignity hundreds of years ago.
...
Lunchtime at school. As usual, Sota took out two bentos, and Jolyne casually grabbed one and started eating.
Sota asked puzzledly: "Why do you always mooch off my bento, Jolyne?"
Jolyne instantly switched to dead-fish eyes, mechanically shoving food into her mouth as she grumbled: "Because Hori-nee makes it taste good, obviously. I get that my old man wants to show off to his daughter, but what kind of normal parent makes porridge for their kid's lunch? By noon it's stone cold?!"
Rustle rustle...
Jolyne opened her bag, pulled out the bento Jotaro had secretly slipped in, and poked at it with a spoon a few times.
"Banana, bread crust, milk, egg... Is this seriously not baby food?" Jolyne complained in bewilderment.
"Hahaha, oh right, Jolyne—the cafeteria's under renovation today, so afternoon classes are canceled. We can head home early." Sota smoothly changed the subject, set down his bento, looked up curiously, and asked, "Is your dad coming to pick you up?"
"Huh? No way he would..."
A tall figure loomed over the two.
"Jolyne, I'm here to pick you up."
"Dad?" Jolyne jumped, staring at Jotaro in disbelief. "When did you get here?"
"Just now."
"But why are you here? Don't you usually let me go home alone?"
[To bond properly, first understand why Jolyne's rebellious. Top of the list: you're always out messing around, never valuing family, never letting her feel fatherly love. So you need to take concrete action to show you care.]
"As a father picking up his daughter, does there need to be a reason?" Jotaro coughed twice, looking perfectly natural as he extended his hand to Jolyne. "Come on, let's go home."
"Yeah..."
Feeling fatherly love for the first time, Jolyne was momentarily flustered, cheeks faintly pink as she took Jotaro's hand and set off home.
Jolyne couldn't help thinking: What's up with this cheap dad today? Why's he suddenly acting so different? He used to always have that cold face.
"By the way, want to go hang out with Koichi and Josuke?"
"Really?!"
"Just today, though."
"Yay!"
Meanwhile, on Jotaro's side...
Good, initial results showing...
[Next, to close the distance, the most important thing is what you call her. What father doesn't have a pet name for his daughter? Even my mom calls me little Dio. Try coming up with a cute nickname?]
"Little starfish..." This was the cutest thing Jotaro could force out of his imagination.
"Huh?"
"You're my cute little starfish..."
Jolyne looked utterly repulsed, arms crossed, stepping back twice: "I'm not some weird ocean creature like that. Dad, did writing papers finally fry your brain?"
"Mm..."
Damn you, Dio—what kind of crap advice is this!
[Suddenly getting so affectionate will naturally make Jolyne feel weirded out at first, but even if your daughter's stone-faced, unleash this ultimate move and she'll instantly turn into daddy's little snuggle-bug. The ultimate move is...]
Jotaro steeled himself, took off his white hat, and placed it on Jolyne's head.
Good, now Jolyne can feel that I care about her...?
"What're you doing? I can't even see the road now. Dad, you're so annoying today."
Seeing Jolyne's reaction, Jotaro's outstretched hand trembled unconsciously. His face darkened as he stepped back half a pace.
Screwed up...
"Here."
Jolyne handed the hat back, then turned her head, tiptoed, stretched out both arms, and muttered softly: "Carry me."
Jotaro froze for a moment, put his hat back on properly, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly as he crouched down and hoisted Jolyne onto his back.
"Dad's acting so weird today. It's Dio-nii's idea, right?" Jolyne buried her face, suddenly speaking up. "No no no, it has to be him. Only Dio-nii could come up with something this bizarre."
Even though goosebumps covered her body,
Still... I can feel Dad trying his absolute hardest to bond with me. I'm really happy.
And in Jotaro's mind at that moment, only one thought:
Dio... you said if it didn't work I could beat you to death, right!
...
At the same time, behind a corner wall hid a certain blond rat enjoying a recording.
"Hahahaha, that old bastard Jotaro actually believed it—he really believed it, hahahahahaha..." Diego clutched his stomach laughing, then another evil idea rose. "Hiss... With such an embarrassing video, how much would the Joestar family pay to buy it and keep me quiet?"
Plus that white-haired French guy who got saved by the little dinosaur by accident—might as well bundle and sell the info?
"How about 1 billion?"
"Yeah!" Lost in thought, Diego didn't immediately register whose voice it was. He clapped once, praising: "Jotaro's so prideful, extorting 2 billion from him wouldn't be excessive. Great idea... ah..."
The voice jammed like a clock chain. Now diamond is the second-hardest natural substance, because something even harder had appeared.
Diego gave an awkward laugh, body inching backward as he played dumb: "Hahaha... Jotaro, when did you get here? I was just happy for you and Jolyne reconciling..."
"Probably around the time you called me an old bastard." Jotaro sneered, tone shifting. Though calm, danger lurked in every word. "Speaking of which, you said if it didn't work, I could string you up and beat you senseless, right?"
"Hahaha... Jotaro, look—the results turned out great, didn't they?" Diego tried to weasel. "Was telling you to pick up your daughter wrong? Isn't Jolyne happy? Telling you to care about her wrong? Isn't Jolyne happy? Even when Jolyne got unhappy later, didn't she still let you carry her? So you can't hit me~"
"Ora!"
"Nani—The World, time st—"
Jotaro wasn't in the mood for banter. Star Platinum punched Diego square in the face.
Bam!
"Buga—!!!"
"You fell for it, Jotaro—this is my escape route! Punching me this far, you think you can still catch up and beat me? Compared to Lord Dio's wits, you're still far off! The winner is still me, Dio!!!"
Diego flew back dozens of meters, steadied himself, shakily climbed onto The World's back, and had it sprint away carrying him.
"Yare yare daze..." Jotaro adjusted his hat brim, a faint smile curling. "Just a light lesson for you."
Anyway, couldn't break through that guy's thick skin.
Today's victor: Jotaro, victory!
(Relationship with daughter seems to have improved again)