"Inori, were you talking to someone?"
Yasuho walked into Inori's room after hearing voices. She could only make out that someone was speaking, not the actual words, but curiosity got the better of her.
She was a straightforward girl by nature, and with curiosity driving her, she'd forgotten to knock, pushing the door open and walking straight in. In her arms was a pink set of pajamas she'd prepared for Inori.
What she saw made her jaw drop.
Inori was sitting on the bed, pink hair spilling across her clothes, one hand pulling her shorts open, the other fumbling around between her legs in an unmistakable groping motion—As a fellow girl, Yasuho's face went crimson instantly. She never would have guessed that this innocent-looking girl would do something so brazen without even locking the door...
"Wha—!? No, it's not what you think!"
Inori threw both hands up in the air, face burning, words tumbling out in a jumbled mess.
"It's okay, Inori, I won't tell anyone. Every girl tries it at this age, and I—"
"That's not it!!"
Inori wanted to cry but had no tears. Her wildly gesticulating hands only betrayed how flustered she truly was.
"The underwear you gave me feels a little too small... it's digging in and my butt itches..."
"?"
She'd expected the awkward but perfectly reasonable explanation to clear things up. Instead, Yasuho's expression changed completely. The smile vanished from her face, replaced by a dark cloud gathering between her brows.
Did I say something wrong?
"What's the matter, Yasuho? ...Mmph?"
Without a word, Yasuho tossed the neatly folded pajamas onto the bed, lunged at Inori before she could react, and pinned her down. Then her hands began groping Inori's shorts-clad rear, eyes closed, feeling her way with studious concentration.
"What are you doing!?"
Inori's cheeks flushed pink. Nobody had ever treated her like this. Pretty as she was, that didn't give anyone the right to get so handsy!
"...Yep. Definitely bigger than mine."
Yasuho finally let go, having had her fill. She sat in front of Inori, shoulders slumped in defeat.
"So that's what this is about..."
Measuring hip size by hand was a bit much, wasn't it? Or was the difference really that noticeable?
The bitter smile on Inori's face only made Yasuho more miserable. She seized the moment while Inori was off-guard, flipped her shirt up, and ran her hands around Inori's waist in a thorough circle.
"Even your waist is thinner than mine... ugh."
"Ah! Don't—that tickles, Yasuho, stop, please...!"
The skin around her waist was Inori's most sensitive weak spot. Even the lightest poke sent her into gasping fits. The only person who'd ever known this secret was Hare Menjou, and only because living together meant Hare had once accidentally poked that exact spot. Now, not even one day in a new world, and her defenses had already crumbled.
"Oh? Found your weakness!"
Yasuho flashed a mischievous grin, then involuntarily glanced at the cute navel peeking out from the disheveled shirt... and sank back into despair.
"...Still so slim. Why don't I have a figure like this!"
Because I'm an artificial human built to optimal specifications. Body fat percentage isn't exactly something I can change.
Yasuho was a thoroughly feminine girl. She could hold a grudge against all men because one lousy guy had wronged her, and she could seethe with jealousy because a girl she'd just taken in had a better figure. She was a completely standard high school girl.
She was more assertive than either Hare Menjou or Kanon Kusama. If anything, she was closest to Ayase Shinomiya, with the key difference being that Ayase was wheelchair-bound, lived through an extraordinary crisis, and held the role of a combat pilot, whereas Yasuho was a girl who'd grown up safe and comfortable in a time of peace.
"Earlier today... why were you at that place?"
Inori could see Yasuho was feeling low, so she decided to chat with her a while longer. It was still early for bed anyway.
"Sigh."
The question drew another weary exhale from Yasuho.
"Can't tell me?"
"I was hiding from a guy who won't leave me alone."
Yasuho looked at Inori with a smile tinged with bitterness.
"His last name wouldn't happen to be Higashikata, would it?"
Inori ventured the question.
She'd only read the first two chapters of JoJolion, but she remembered that Yasuho had gone to Lovers' Cape to escape the persistent Joshu Higashikata, which was how she'd stumbled upon the unconscious male lead. Now the same scenario had played out again, only with Inori in that role. But Joshu Higashikata wasn't supposed to exist in this 1999 Morioh.
"No. Why do you ask?" It was an unusual surname, but Yasuho didn't read anything into it. "That guy's someone I used to play with as a kid. We were never that close, but out of nowhere he confessed and I didn't know how to handle it. I have zero interest in him..."
"I turned him down flat, but he seems really torn up about it. He still follows me around every day."
"I went to Lovers' Cape today to get away from him, and that's when I found you."
So it's as simple as that... Inori had assumed Yasuho was a girl whose heart had been broken by some scumbag and who'd gone to the cliff in a dark moment. That stretch of coast towered dozens of meters above the ocean—there'd been suicides there throughout history.
"Next time he shows up, let me handle him for you."
Inori was very good at killing people, but even better at making people suffer. She had a hundred ways to make a man like that run screaming at the mere mention of her name.
"That's sweet, but no thanks."
To Yasuho, seeing this delicate-looking girl offer to fight her battles with that harmless little smile could only be an attempt at comfort. She waved it off with an awkward laugh.
"I really don't care about him at all. I've already decided—next time I see him, I'm giving him a slap he won't forget."
"Then can you tell me what the favor you mentioned earlier is? The thing you need my help with?"
At first, Inori had genuinely thought Yasuho wanted her to help stage some kind of scene to scare the guy off. And even if it were a ruse, Inori would never stoop to something so distasteful—she'd simply find a quiet moment when Yasuho wasn't looking to show the man what real suffering felt like.
"That? It's actually a super important thing."
"Go ahead."
Inori prompted.
"Tomorrow's the first day of school, and my club needs to set up early on campus to recruit new members. So... could you walk Koichi to school in my place?"
Inori had braced herself for some embarrassing, hard-to-broach problem. Then again, she couldn't rule out the possibility that Yasuho was just giving herself a graceful way out of the conversation.
"Please?"
"He's not a little kid anymore. Why does he need an escort?"
Inori recalled that in the original story, Koichi had walked to school alone—and along the way encountered the two men who would change his life forever.
"You saw how my mom is... she specifically told me to take him, and I don't want the hassle. So I'm passing it to you. Besides, you've got nothing to do at home, and you might as well explore Morioh a bit. Who knows, maybe it'll jog your memory."
Inori thought it over and had to admit it made sense, so she shrugged and agreed.
Truth be told, she'd already been planning to go out and investigate the town—first to see how this Morioh differed from what she remembered, and then to visit the famous Ghost Girl's Alley to meet Reimi Sugimoto and deal with the serial killer Yoshikage Kira as soon as possible.
...And by tagging along with Koichi, she'd also get the chance to meet the original protagonist Josuke Higashikata, as well as the Joestar family's strongest warrior—Jotaro Kujo!