Akt. 3 [Cafe]

Kakyoin was back at the Library the next day, in order to ask Edel on where to find the next Heart Shard. Sitting down at one of the tables next to a bookshelf, he was in deep thought about Jotaro.

“Apparently he was blubbering about ‘being disappointed’,” said Fakir.

Blubbering was certainly a word that didn’t fit Jotaro’s way of talking, as he knew he was loud and rude with his way of speech, unfortunately enough. He felt that was a sign that the Heart Shard he obtained from Anteaterina successfully merged with Jotaro’s heart once more, gladly enough. But there was the fact that the emotion was Disappointment, which wasn’t a happy feeling for sure. Although it wasn’t necessarily a good feeling, this meant that he was one step closer to completing Jotaro’s heart, thus making him kinder and getting Kakyoin out of that stupid birdcage.

He looked back up, seeing Edel walking behind the Librarian’s Desk, looking at him with the same emotionless smile as always. He stood back up and walked in front of the Librarian’s Desk, telling Edel, “You were right, there was a Heart Shard in the Girls’ Junior Ballet Class.”

“I assume you retrieved it?” Edel replied.

Kakyoin nodded. “Although I am a bit upset that it was Disappointment, I understand that it’s necessary to complete the Prince’s heart. Anyways, do you have any idea on where the next Heart Shard would be located?”

“Things will be revealed in all due time, dear Prince,” Edel said strangely.

“What do you mean by that?” Kakyoin replied. She didn’t mean that she wouldn’t help him no more, did she?

“That in order to complete your mission, you should not just rush ahead,” Edel replied, still cryptic.

“...Okay, then…” Kakyoin replied, disappointed and confused at the same time. “...Could you at least provide a hint, then?”

“Very well then,” Edel nodded. She then continued, “Heart Shards usually lie in the hearts of those whose own story has gone awry, usually exemplifying the emotions in the others of which they represent.”

Kakyoin tried to decipher what she meant by that. “...So are you saying that I should look out for those who are acting a little bit ‘odd’, per say?”

Edel did not reply.

Sighing in frustration by the lack of response, Kakyoin then proceeded to leave the library, saying, “I’ll be going then. Goodbye.”

Another day went by, and there was still no sign of a Heart Shard nearby. Kakyoin had also been to the village several times, in order to observe the villagers and see if any of them were acting strange, like Edel had suggested. He had also asked around, but nobody really gave him a definitive answer, only worthless gossip and rumors that were not indicative of Heart Shards, it seemed.

Kakyoin was back in Ballet Class, and was currently trying to hold the fifth position of ballet, something he considered uncomfortable to do, since it was holding one foot sideways against another sideways foot, pointing in the opposite direction. But when he was Prince Tutu, it was easy and practically no focus was required, something that was a sharp contrast to his current skills, when he was just Kakyoin. Oh, how he wished that ballet came easy to him as when he was Prince Tutu, that way he wouldn’t have to deal with Mr. Cat.

“Focus, focus, and stop wobbling in place! Make sure to keep those arms down too!” Mr. Cat called out to him, right on cue.

“R-Right!” Kakyoin sputtered out, snapping back to reality. Putting his arms back down, he concentrated on holding the fifth position, and tried to stop his mind from wandering away from practice.

After Ballet Class, he decided to head to the village, making another attempt to ask around again, about anybody acting ‘strange and out of place’. But yet again, nobody gave him a significant answer, and Kakyoin was starting to give up, as it was also getting dark. Heading back to the dorms, he looked down in disappointment, and somehow bumped into someone’s back.

“S-Sorry–!” Kakyoin sputtered out, looking back up, but to his horror, he realized that he bumped into none other than that of Jotaro Kujo, who whipped around and looked at him angrily.

“You?” Jotaro hissed. “Again? Watch where you’re going, idiot.”

“I said I’m sorry,” Kakyoin blurted out, frowning in frustration.

“Excuse me?” Jotaro replied, looking angrier from his response. Kakyoin then noticed an empty glass bottle in his hand, making him raise an eyebrow in confusion.

“...What’s with the bottle?” He then asked, stupidly enough.

“Why the hell would you want to know, weirdo?” Jotaro snapped back. “I’m just trying to find a drink, goddammit!”

“O-Oh,” Kakyoin replied, feeling even more stupid. “I was just curious, that’s all.”

“Curious?” He replied, looking confused. “The hell’s that?”

“W-What? D-Do you not know what curiosity is?”

“Answer the damn question,” Jotaro hissed.

Does he not know what curiosity is anymore? Kakyoin thought to himself, but he noticed Jotaro getting angrier, so he answered, “I-It’s when you want to know more about something, like really badly. That’s being curious.”

“...Huh.” He looked down in response, but looked emotionless as well.

“...Do you not know what Curiosity is, Jotaro?” He then asked blatantly.

“...I’m not answering that,” Jotaro hissed in response.

Kakyoin frowned. He then noticed a sign near the treeline, one that was covered with vines and overgrowth, pointing towards a slightly overgrown path, but still looked like it was used from time to time, but just barely. He certainly did not remember seeing that before.

“...I’m sorry to ask, but do you know what that sign is for?” Kakyoin then asked, pointing towards the worn sign behind Jotaro.

He looked behind himself, answering, “No. Never seen that before.” Jotaro then stopped, asking, “...Are you curious about that?”

“...You could say that,” Kakyoin answered, confused by the fact that Jotaro was asking that.

“Well, are you or are you not?” Jotaro hissed.

“Y-Yes!” He sputtered out. He then walked over towards the sign and brushed off the vines, to which the sign now read ‘Ernest and Ebine’s Cafe’. “So it’s pointing towards a restaurant…” He then trailed off.

“So I can get a drink there?” Jotaro bluntly said.

“Maybe,” Kakyoin replied. Jotaro then looked angrily at him, to which he sputtered out, waving his hands slightly, “I-I don’t know if it’s open or not, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to check!”

Jotaro then walked past him, still holding the glass bottle, as if not having a single second thought, not even wary of the fact that the supposed trail to the cafe did not even look like it had been used in a while. “H-Hey!” Kakyoin sputtered out, running towards Jotaro as he was worried for him, having a strange sense of dread. “W-Wait for me!”

Jotaro kept on moving, however, but Kakyoin was able to catch up to him, walking beside him now. Jotaro glanced at him, but just groaned and rolled his eyes, much to his annoyance. Eventually they came to a stone building, with a red wooden roof and two stories, covered with ivy and lichen in some places. Kakyoin then said, “Well, it looks like nobody’s been here in a long time, so I think it’s safe to say that—”

Jotaro then knocked on the door, stupidly enough.

The door burst open, making him jolt in fear. Behind the door was a lady wearing an apron, her purple eyes wide open and looking slightly manic, much to Kakyoin’s disturbance. Her smile was also too wide, and her grayish-purple hair was tied back into a bun, but some hairs were sticking out of it, making her look even more manic to him. Overall, he couldn’t help but feel terrified about the strange apron-wearing woman.

“This is a cafe, right?” Jotaro asked the apron-wearing woman, not even flinching like Kakyoin did.

“Yes, yes it is!” The apron-wearing woman answered, looking awfully overjoyed by that question. “Come inside, come inside!”

“...Okay,” Jotaro replied emotionlessly, much to Kakyoin’s disbelief. He then started to walk inside, following the apron-wearing woman. He looked back at him expectantly, like he figured that Kakyoin wanted to come inside too, stupidly enough.

Kakyoin gulped at first, then hesitantly came inside the run-down cafe as well, following Jotaro and the apron-wearing woman to a wooden table, with two seats beside it. Jotaro sat down at one end of the table, placing the empty glass bottle on the table, and Kakyoin hesitantly sat down at the other end, feeling awfully nervous.

“I’ll go cook some food for you, so I’ll be right back!” The apron-wearing woman said, running off into the cafe’s kitchen, leaving Kakyoin and Jotaro by themselves at the table.

Kakyoin gripped his head as he laid his elbows on the wooden table, completely panicking about the situation at hand. He only came along with Jotaro to help him get a glass of water, not to meet some crazy-looking lady and be served some food by her! And to make matters worse, Jotaro wasn’t even looking at him and asking what was wrong! Did he even sense some amount of bizarreness about this woman?!

But wait, wasn’t he looking for some strange-acting people, in order to find some of the Prince’s Heart Shards? Now that he thought about it, this lady definitely fit the category of acting absolutely bizarre, so maybe she had a Heart Shard in her… But what emotion was the question that Kakyoin was asking himself.

“I’m back~!” The apron-wearing woman sing-songily said, carrying two plates with meat and vegetables on them, placing them in front of Jotaro and Kakyoin as well as some silverware. “Now enjoy your food!”

“R-Right,” Kakyoin sputtered out, giving a nervous smile in response. Jotaro, however, did not say a word and picked up his silverware, starting to take some bites off of the plate and eating them.

Kakyoin looked down at the food, then back at the lady, who was looking at him expectantly with that ever-so disturbing, manic smile of hers. Giving an awkward smile, he picked up his utensils hesitantly, and started to eat.

He nearly did a spit-take once he tasted the food, however. It was cold, for starters, including the meat, and there was virtually no flavor whatsoever. Overall, he immediately deemed the lady to be a horrible cook, of all time.

Looking back at Jotaro, he noticed that he didn’t even look like he cared about the lack of flavor and coldness of the food, in fact, it didn’t even look like he noticed it at all! Setting his utensils down beside his plate of cold and flavorless food, he noticed that the lady was still looking at him, as if waiting for his reaction.

“Well, do you like it?” The lady asked, still manically smiling.

Still giving an awkward smile, he then blurted out, “I need to go.”

Jumping up from the table, he hurriedly walked out of the cafe, not even looking behind him as the lady was telling him to come back and finish his ‘meal’, or what was supposed to be one. As he finally got past the door, Kakyoin closed the door behind him, still horribly smiling.

“What am I doing?!” He then cried outside, gripping the sides of his head in panic. Kakyoin then started to pace, talking to himself, saying, “I can’t just leave Jotaro there! That lady is crazy! What to do, what to do…?”

As he looked up, he then noticed that near one side of the horrible cafe was a gravestone, one that read ‘Ernest’, making him immediately shut up and straighten his back to take in the sight further.

He did remember that the sign leading to the cafe said ‘Ernest and Ebine’s Cafe’, after all…

Covering his mouth in shock, Kakyoin looked down as he realized that the lady’s husband, the one who probably helped her run the cafe, was dead.

He looked around, hearing Drosselmeyer’s voice near him. Balling up his fists as he looked down in determination next, he headed back towards the cafe’s door, determined on helping both Jotaro and Ebine, the lady who he had deemed crazy at first.

As Kakyoin turned the doorknob on the cafe’s door, pushing it open, he transformed into Prince Tutu once more. Ebine turned around as he did a series of passé in, looking at him with… shock on her face? He couldn’t tell because she was still smiling.

Ending with the fourth position, and doing the fourth crossed position with his arms, he said calmly with a smile to Ebine, “It is time for Jotaro to leave, Ms. Ebine.”

He then did a series of fouetté, summoning some vines to raise Jotaro’s seat in the air, who was just looking at him in angered bafflement. The vines made a small birdcage around Jotaro (much to Kakyoin’s own distaste), and he slowly passed out, falling asleep and bent over on the wooden chair. After Jotaro passed out, Kakyoin then stepped in front of the vine pillar, separating the path between him and Ebine.

“My customer!” Ebine cried out, seemingly in despair. “Give me back my customer!”

“Ms. Ebine, will you please come dance with me?” He replied softly, raising a hand towards her, beckoning for her to dance with him.

“Dance?!” Ebine cried out, her smiling turning into a confused look as she backed away. Their surroundings then became a dark green color, murky and foglike. “My job is not to dance! It is to cook, and to serve my customers with my food!”

“What do you hope to achieve, by forcing Jotaro to eat your food?” Kakyoin replied, frowning as he continued to step towards her.

“I want him to continue eating, more and more!” She replied angrily, her smile finally turning upside down as she continued to back away.

“Yes, but why is that?”

“Why is that? I want him to eat lots and lots, to let my customer have his fill,” She answered, smiling once more, except sadly. A red apparition of Jotaro in a prince’s outfit then appeared behind Ebine, saying in unison with her, “Because having them fill up with delicious food is pure happiness!”

“So that’s where you’ve been, my Prince,” He then said with a smile. Beckoning the apparition towards himself, he then said softly, “You do not belong in Ebine’s heart, let us go back home.”

“I’m not letting him go anywhere!” Ebine cried out. A tower of dark fog then lifted up Ebine and the apparition of Jotaro, causing Kakyoin to shield himself from the powerful wind. “Stay away from me!”

“Ms. Ebine!” Kakyoin cried out as he shielded himself, still looking at her.

A dark ethereal sailboat was then formed around Ebine and the apparition, still floating in the air. Looking down upon Kakyoin, she then cried out, “I just want him to enjoy my food, that’s what a restaurant is for!”

Kakyoin formed his own ethereal sailboat as he did a small pirouette, white in color, which then lifted him up in the air, now looking almost eye-to-eye with her. Frowning as he put one hand reaching towards Ebine and the other on his chest, he then asked, “But then why is your food so cold and flavorless, Ebine? Why would you force your customer to eat such a meal, and lock him up? I want you to tell me how you’re feeling, Ms. Ebine!”

Her expression turned into shock and sadness, visibly taken aback by his comments. Her eyes welled up, and muttered, “What I am feeling…?”

The boat Ebine and the apparition were floating on went down towards his’, and they were finally at the same height with each other. “Please, come dance with me, Ms. Ebine,” Kakyoin asked again, once more reaching out a hand towards her.

She hesitantly took his hand, and then they both proceeded to dance.

“I-I miss my husband, I miss him a lot,” Ebine sputtered out as she finished dancing with Kakyoin. “I have his recipes, but he’s no longer here to cook them with me, and I wanted people to stay as long as possible because of how lonely I am without him… Can’t I have that?”

The red apparition of Jotaro appeared once more behind her, and Kakyoin spoke to it, saying, “So you are the feeling of Loneliness…”

The apparition nodded sadly.

“You do not belong here, in Ebine’s heart,” He then told it, “It is time to come home, in the Prince’s heart once more.”

The apparition of Jotaro nodded again, resting a hand on Ebine’s shoulder, saying, “I’m sorry, but I need to go back home.”

“W-Wait! Don’t go!” She sputtered out in response, as the apparition faded. “I don’t want to be all alone again!”

“You won’t be alone, Ms. Ebine,” Kakyoin smiled. He bent down slightly, and lifted a decorated box full of index cards out from the ground, handing it to Ebine, and showing the inside of it, which had a picture of her and her husband, both smiling. “For you have the recipes from the one you loved, and there are plenty of dishes to be made from them, a gift left behind from the one you loved, the power to turn loneliness into strength.”

Ebine’s eyes welled up once more, but she was smiling softly this time, grabbing the box full of recipe cards from Kakyoin. “Thank you, thank you so much…I’ll cook again, this time with the same warmth he had in his heart.”

Their surroundings changed once more, and they were back in the cafe again. Ebine sank down towards the ground, crying slightly, and the vines holding up Jotaro receded, making Jotaro fall lightly on the ground, still unconscious. A red jewel shard dropped into Kakyoin’s hands, the Heart Shard of Loneliness, and he then bent down towards the unconscious Jotaro, releasing the Heart Shard, which then went into his chest, reuniting into his heart once more. Jotaro’s eyes slightly opened, looking tired and weary, and Kakyoin smiled softly and tilted his head slightly in response. Jotaro’s eyes closed again, and he then stood up, walking out of the cafe and transforming back into his school uniform outside.

Smiling, Kakyoin decided to wait outside the cafe for Jotaro, but not too close in order to not arouse his suspicion. He walked back along the worn path, and stood next to the sign that directed them to the cafe in the first place, waiting for Jotaro to come back.

Eventually Jotaro came out of the woods next to the cafe, looking worn out still as he was trudging his feet towards him. Kakyoin looked at him with concern, and then asked, “Are you okay? I’m sorry for just leaving you there with that lady, too.”

“I-I’m fine,” Jotaro sputtered out in an unusual manner, frowning slightly, but with no anger behind it, it looked like. “Just… I don’t know, I feel lonely I guess? I don’t even think I’m using the right term for it…”

Kakyoin frowned. He forgot that the Heart Shard he retrieved was for Loneliness, and it also explained why Jotaro was speaking about feeling lonely. Debating on something, he then made his choice and asked him, “...Do you want to walk back to the dorms with me?”

“If that’s what makes it stop, I guess so,” Jotaro replied, nodding slightly.

He smiled slightly in response and took Jotaro’s hand, leading him back towards the dorms.