Chapter Text
Once upon a time, years and years ago, there was a little boy and his father. His father was very sad, for his wife had died.
Despite their nobility, and their careful nature, when returning from a trip abroad, their carriage crashed, and was dashed to pieces down a long cliffside.
Before the wreckage appeared a traveling gentleman that saved the father and child. The father was amazed by his goodness. So impressed was he by him, the father made a promise: as you have helped me, so too shall I help you.
This was all well and good, but…
Perhaps the promise held the cold gleam of gold and jewels. Perhaps the promise was a warm one, of love and support. Perhaps both.
But was that really such a good idea?
The manor had been stifled beneath an eerie quietness. Grief was in part the source of it, as many of the inhabitants were still mourning the loss of the much-beloved dog, Danny. Jonathan, especially affected, had scarcely left his room, and, more concerningly, had been eating less. Dio, however, continuously paced from one end of the manor to the other without tangible purpose. George Joestar observed both with mounting worry. He would soon take extended leave from the mansion due to business, and he did not want to leave his sons in such a state. The boys’ last true interaction had been a brawl ending in tears and bloodshed, and he could not abide a repeat of that clash in his absence.
The manor had also received a letter of mysterious origin. It had been tucked within George’s breakfast tray that morning, right beneath the plate of toast and strawberry preserves. The envelope was thick, weighty with quality, and the seal was rose-embossed, a rich red. After brushing crumbs from the butter knife, he had pushed the blade beneath the seal and retrieved the contents.
He read through the letter once, and then again with greater attention. He smiled.
Perhaps this was the solution he had been seeking.
“Boarding school?” The query was simultaneous. Jonathan’s voice lilted upward with surprise while Dio’s veered towards a vague affront.
George nodded. “I think it would be a most wonderful experience for you both. You’ll have the chance to study beneath highly accomplished scholars, participate in a frankly Olympic range of sport, and— make new friends. To be frank, many of the boys around here are simply… un-gentlemanly. While I hold you both in the highest regard, I believe that spending more time with like-minded peers will help you develop as fine young men. Additionally,” he added, and his manner drooped, revealing sympathetic grief. “I am sure that you’re both still mourning the loss of Danny. A change of scenery would help assuage you.”
“But, Father,” Jonathan said with wide eyes and knit brows, “wouldn’t you be lonely without us?”
“I will be away from the manor, as well,” he replied. “An upcoming business trip will waylay me for a month if it goes well, and for longer if it does not.”
Dio, upon the surface, was taking the news stoically. Jonathan glanced at him and frowned. Relocating would bring the opportunity to make new friends, as all of his so-called ones prior had been easily pushed away by Dio. However, leaving would also introduce yet another obstacle to mending his relationship with Erina.
Dio, who was staring blankly at the table, tallied the costs. He was quite sure that George Joestar held no suspicion towards him regarding Danny’s demise, but perhaps sending him away was the first step towards excising him from the family entirely. However, a new environment meant a new opportunity to rebalance power in his favor after the absolute disruption of his fight with Jojo.
The ensuing week was a whirlwind of packing, sending and receiving further confirmation letters, a contract regarding tuition with enough trailing zeroes to make Dio’s head spin, getting measured for uniforms (“when did you two get so tall?” commented a struggling butler), and strategizing travel. Jonathan primarily agonized over how to best introduce himself to his new peers while shoving all of his belongings into his luggage. Dio covered up the rapid recalculation of his plans with an affected anxiety over packing. He filled his suitcases, emptied them, rearranged them, and packed them again. He would have his school uniform to wear, but there were outfits required for dinners, or for evening walks, or for cold days or rainy days or—
He turned on his heel. Jonathan stood in the doorway, watching sheepishly. Once Dio glared at him, he squared his shoulders.
“The carriage is here,” Jonathan said. “So— don’t take too long.”
It was fortunate that George had already departed for business. Dio didn’t know if he could stomach faking his way through a tearful goodbye. Both boys entered the carriage and were waved politely off by the manor staff. The carriage rattled along the road. Jonathan was reticent, removed; he sat upon the opposite seat and promptly buried his nose in a book.
Reading would be a decent way to pass the time, Dio thought. He rummaged through his satchel and retrieved a tome of Roman history. While the carriage window steadily darkened beneath the shadow of swelling rain clouds, there was still enough lingering light to allow him to see the pages. He read for a long time before a loud snore broke his concentration.
Jonathan had fallen asleep. His cheek was plastered against the carriage window.
Dio reached into his satchel, snatched a spare piece of rose-emblazoned stationery, crumpled it up, and threw it. It bounced off Jojo’s face uselessly and landed in his lap. He continued to snore.
Dio fixed his grip upon the heavy history book and lifted it, aimed. The carriage passed over a pothole and jostled. Jonathan woke up with a snort and blinked at the crumpled paper in his lap. “How much longer, d’you think?” he asked blearily. “Berkshire isn’t all that far away.” He smoothed out the wrinkled paper and turned it over.
Dio scowled and set the book at his side. “Berkshire? I thought the school was in Cambridgeshire.”
“Er.” Jonathan blinked and held up the note. “This says Amsterdam.”
Dio yanked the paper from his hand. It read:
Ohtori Academy
Est. (The following year was unreadable on the creased paper no matter how Dio attempted to flatten it out.)
Amsterdam, Netherlands
“That’s nonsense,” Dio spat. “Nobody said anything about Amsterdam. Or— about getting on a boat to go there.” He upturned his bag upon the bench and searched the contents. Acceptance letters, order forms, envelopes and seals— the clues that he could find were all conflicting. Some did say Cambridgeshire. Many said Amsterdam. Others stated places he had never heard of before.
“Wait,” Jonathan exclaimed as Dio shook his bag and sent more rose-marked ephemera tumbling to the floor. “Why don’t we ask the driver? He must know where we’re going.”
“...You’re right.” He loathed to admit it. Dio moved to knock on the wall at the driver’s back, but either the carriage had rolled onto a terribly cobbled street, or it had gone off the road entirely. It rattled as if intending to jostle his brain out of his skull. Outside the carriage window, the sky had gone ponderously dark. Rain lashed the glass.
It was far too ominous. Dio and Jonathan shared a look.
“Do you think we’re being kidnapped?” Jonathan asked.
Was George Joestar stupid enough to fall for an obviously fake boarding school invitation? Or had he sent them on a faux abduction experience in order to teach them a lesson about brotherhood? Or were there simply multiple branches of the school and each mismatch of address was no more than an honest mistake? Dio clutched the seat cushion as the carriage continued to rattle.
Jonathan stood, swayed, and struggled to keep his balance. He lurched forward and pounded on the panel at the driver’s back. “Hello? I think there has been some kind of misunderstanding—”
Dio scowled. “He won’t be able to hear you! It’s storming and it already sounds like the carriage is about to fall to pieces!”
Jonathan gave the door a doubtful glance. “I could climb out and get him if I’m careful.”
While Dio was not opposed to Jonathan slipping off the rain-slicked door and dying in a freak carriage accident, it seemed unnecessary. “Just wait,” Dio insisted. “We can—”
At the carriage’s abrupt stop, Jonathan fell forward, and his elbow crushed against Dio’s chest. Dio hacked and kicked until he slid off and tumbled to the carriage floor.
The door opened, and both looked out with bruised bewilderment. The driver proffered an umbrella and gestured for them to exit. As they clambered out, the rain went from a torrent, to a mild drizzle, to a light sporadic spattering. The driver shrugged and closed the umbrella. A group of men, presumably campus staff as the familiar rose emblem was embroidered upon their jackets, began to attend to the luggage.
Jonathan lifted a hand to his brow and blinked against the light. “Whoa! This place—!”
The campus unfurled before them. Shining blocks of fine white marble were lined with spindly columns and richly green foliage. Grand archways and gleaming paths arced up the side of a hill that filled the horizon. At the top, the core of the campus glittered against the emerging sunlight, but the most impressive structure was a tall, regal tower, nearly high enough to pierce the sky.
The attendants bustled their luggage to the assigned dormitory, a stern and imposing-looking house hewn from the customary white marble. As the attendants scurried about, Dio investigated the well-manicured front lawn. Astride the path, a miniature marble monolith stood, stretching up to about his height and a half. The plinth beneath was a flattened circle engraved with the spans of the zodiac.
Once the last of the luggage had been deposited, Jonathan joined him. “Do you think that…” He trailed off, glanced at campus above, and then looked back to Dio. “Do you think that we’ve been spirited away somewhere? Like in a story? That carriage ride…”
“No.” Dio had been wondering the exact same thing. “This is a strange place, but the letters made it quite clear that it’s very exclusive. So exclusive that no-one has ever heard of it and nobody knows where it is. Do you think that this is plaster?” He drove the toe of his boot against the base of the monolith. It was undebatably stone. He winced.
Jonathan had no desire to share a room with Dio, but being at a new locale with a fresh social slate to work with would make it manageable. If all else failed, the dormitory they had been assigned seemed to have excess rooms, and he could retreat to one if Dio became too intolerable.
He had explored the empty halls as the attendants worked. The amount of unused rooms had surprised him, and he had asked an attendant if other students would arrive soon. The attendant claimed that they would not.
Their uniforms were delivered in the midst of their unpacking. Dio tossed the lid from the box and grimaced as he held up teal cloth. “These are the uniforms? What a hideous color.”
Jonathan lifted a shirt by the collar and tilted his head. “I don’t think it’s all that bad.”
Night fell. Jonathan ventured outside, drawn to the marble plinth, the cool quiet air, and the cloudless night sky. As he gazed upwards, he felt a little disappointed that the constellations were all the same ones that he was used to at home.
They must not have been spirited away, after all.
Once upon a time, years and years ago, there was a little boy and his father. His father was not very sad, even though his dear wife had died…
As she was buried, her child remembered what she had told him nearly every night.
“Dio, no matter what happens, live nobly and with pride. If you do that, you’ll surely reach Heaven.”
But was that really such a good idea?