The sun rises over Morioh and reaches a height at exactly 9:42 am, casting its rays into a bedroom window. The light hurls a vertical slash of glare between the curtains right over Shizuka’s sleeping face, penetrating through her eyelids and jostling her awake. She groans in response, turning around in her bed. But the light imposes itself on her peripheral senses, and will not be ignored.

She sits up in her bed, facing the light head on. Shizuka reaches towards the window and splays her hand. The air around it shines brighter, a series of twinkles and glitters form around her arm. She smiles at the beauty of it.

Her arm turns clockwise. And the light turns with it. As it turns, the beam splits into separate streams. The glaring white becomes seven in multi-color, refracted into its base components and dancing about the corners of the room. An indoor rainbow.

***

It still felt weird to Josuke, ringing the doorbell to the house he spent the first 20 years of his life in. But then his mother answers the door and immediately leaps to throw her arms around him. “Welcome home, Josuke!”

“Hi, Mom. What’s with the hugs? You saw me yesterday.”

“Well, this house just isn’t the same without you eating all my favorite food,” says Tomoko Higashikata, dressed in some simple blouse and trousers, having to stretch to reach her son’s shoulders. Releasing him, she walks back down the hall. “Shizuka!” she calls while Josuke removes his shoes, “your big brother’s here! Time to wake up, sweetie!”

“How’s she doing?”

“She’s as much a sweetie-pie as ever. But, Josuke…” she turns before turning the corner, facing her son with a concerned expression, “you will talk to her about the hair, right?” She waves her hand above her head by way of emphasis.

Josuke nods and shrugs his shoulders, meaning to say, ‘I’ll do what I can.’ Tomoko sighs with upturned brows, and turns the corner. Josuke turns into the living room and kneels before the shrine adjacent to the television, rings the offertory chime, and clasps his hands together.

“Morning, Grandad,” he says, smiling at the photograph at the shrine’s center. Ryohei Higashikata looks as sharp in his policeman’s uniform as a man half his age, at least when that picture was taken. His grandson kneels before him a while, honoring him.

From outside, he listens to his mother pound on Shizuka’s bedroom door (what used to be his bedroom door) and call out to her with affected irritation. “Shizuka, time to get up! Breakfast is almost ready!” and, barely audible, a moaned reply from inside the room. Josuke sighs, rising to his feet, and goes into the kitchen.

He’s helping his mom set the breakfast table when Shizuka walks in, clad in a loose nightshirt and rubbing her eyes. Still tan but with none of that face paint on, and all that hair tousled and messy. “Good morning, bro,” she yawns, “morning Auntie.”

“Shizuka,” Tomoko fumes, “I’ve already told you. Don’t call me Auntie! It makes me feel old.”

“Kay,” says Shizuka, drifting over to Tomoko and absently kissing her on the cheek.

“You Americans have such weird customs when it comes to greetings,” Tomoko says, wiping her cheek.

“It’s how we show our…” says Shizuka, before she’s interrupted by a massive yawn, “affection.”

“Uh-huuuh,” says Tomoko with hands on her hips, “how long did you say you were planning on staying again? Is your school alright with you being away?”

“Oh, mm… well, I’m basically on summer vacation right now. As for how long… that’ll depend on whether I find what I came for.”

As the family ate their breakfast, Josuke finally worked up the courage to ask Shizuka. Something that had bugged him ever since he turned into those guys who crashed the car he found his sister at. “Your Stand. It’s evolved, hasn’t it?”

Shizuka stops her eating, looking up as Josuke in surprise. Tomoko smiles to herself and stays silent, knowing she could never truly get what her son talked about in regard to these ‘Stands’. Josuke tried to explain it to her years ago, but she gave up any effort to try and get it.

The tanned girl finally responded. “Ehhh? What are you talking about?”

“When the old man and I first found you, all you could do was make things invisible. But now…” Josuke leans into the table, pointing at Shizuka. The young girl inches away a bit, as Josuke squints at her. “You can do a bunch more…can you?”

Shizuka sighs, smiling to herself, as she leans back in her seat. “I was hoping to show you what I could do later… but it looks like nothing can get past a sergeant like you!”

Josuke chuckles, as he eases his posture. “I heard from those guys in the car yesterday. They told me all about how you… made clones of yourself? Or screwed up their eyesight or something. What’s all that about?”

“Well,” Shizuka ponders, “I’ve been training myself ever since Dad died… I always felt like I could be so much more than an invisible girl, you know?

“It took a few years, but now I’ve got total control of my Stand. So I started experimenting. I tried to push my power as far as I could, when it finally hit me…”

“What?”

A smirk covers over Shizuka’s mouth, as her Stand’s hand appears besides her. Suddenly, Josuke can see the sparkles and beams emitting from its palm.

“Josuke-bro… I don’t think I can just control transparency or whatever. What if… What if I’m making things happen right at the source?”

“The source? Are you talking about our eyes or something?”

“No, bro. I’m talking about light.”

Josuke blinks in surprise. “Light? You mean…”

“Light coming from the sun, bouncing off things, then beaming the images into our retinas so we can see. My Stand, ACHTUNG BABY… we assumed it was just invisibility, but it’s not. It’s light. I can control light particles.”

“…That’s amazing.”

“Hmm. It’s not perfect. I can use it to make, like, illusions and stuff, but they’re basically shadow puppets. No sound, no actual mass. Just pretty pictures. Not to mention, it’s got basically no physical power. Your CRAZY DIAMOND could snap it in half with one punch.”

“Well, don’t feel too bad about that,” Josuke says, smirking, “there’s not a huge number of people who can stand up to CRAZY DIAMOND”

The younger sister pouts, crossing her arms. “Pff. Whatever…” Josuke can only smile, as he puts away the dishes, helping his mother.

***

A full hour and eleven minutes later, Shizuka emerges from the bathroom, fully made up, the same sunglasses over her platinum blonde hair.

“So, are you ready to go now?” Josuke asks, waiting at the front entrance with arms crossed.

“Yes,” she replies, bright-eyed, “let’s do this.”

Huffing, he opens the front door, letting his sister out first. “Josuke, you look after your sister now, got it?” Tomoko calls as he steps outside.



“Yeah, Mom! I’ll see you later, OK?” he replies, shutting the door behind him. They walk into the city together.