Polnareff & Hol Horse Prologue
"Swords, Guns, and Animosity"
"... Ugh."
A deep, irritated groan came muffled from the other side of the bathroom door, followed by a buffet of severe knocks. Is it bad luck, or just a curse that all of the troubles of the world find themselves localized in foreign bathrooms for this guy? Good grief. The brim of a black cap bent downwards, shadowing his face against the beaming Egyptian sun, smoke rising from the cigarette in his mouth.
It could've been a cathartic trip down memory lane for Jotaro Kujo, if it wasn't for all the time he wasted sitting around a smelly bathroom waiting for another man to finish taking a shit. Jotaro sighed, banging on the door once again. He considered just heading off towards the dig site himself if this guy was too busy doing whatever he does alone in the bathroom.
"You seriously dragged me all the way out here just so you can waste time on the shitter. Give me a break, Polnareff."
"Would you just hold on?!"
A loud flush came from the other end of the door. It flung open with a rough push, prompting Jotaro to stumble out of the way to avoid getting smacked in the face (which of course, garnered a sneer from him). A man of silver hair and blue eyes emerged, the sun's rays washed over his lightly-clothed body, fresh air drawing in through his nostrils and exhaling through his coolly grinning mouth.
And as the wind blew past, a pair of crimson earrings dangled softly in the breeze.
Jean Pierre Polnareff shut the door behind him with a kick, jaunting away from the foul-smelling porta-potty with renewed freshness. Egypt's heat and filthy conditions did nothing to dissuade his good mood, as he emerged with a confident smirk on his face to contrast with the perpetual scowl of his comrade.
"You know, that attitude is seriously going to bite you in the ass one day, Jotaro. A little patience can go a long way," he turned around, beckoning his black-capped friend to follow.
"Come on, the dig site's this way. Some progress on our mission might cheer you up, hm?"
"Hmph," Jotaro huffed, his hands vanishing into his coat pockets as he strode after his old friend.
Jean Pierre Polnareff's journey has been a long one, to say the least. Since coming home from Egypt, fulfilling his mission to avenge the death of his sister and kill DIO, the sense of 'unfinished business' has plagued his every thought. He knew that 'home' would never be the same after what he - what all three of them, including Jotaro and Mr. Joestar - had gone through, but he wasn't ready to treat it like some traumatic event. If anything, it was an opportunity to expand his horizons, put Chariot down for a little while, travel the world, and realize those old dreams he had before everything got so messed up.
It wasn't until the turn of the decade that Polnareff realized his mission to right every wrong and attain peace in his life had not yet ended. Knowledge of a particular artifact suddenly fell on his lap, the existence of the arrows.
The arrows, ancient artifacts rumored to be able to gift someone a Stand at-will, began to pop up in different locations all over the world. With the way Mr. Joestar spoke about DIO, it was unlikely that even he - regardless of how old he was, the vampire bastard - was born with a Stand. The World was gifted to him by one of those arrows, meaning that there was still at least one scrap - one remnant - of DIO lurking in the back-alleys of the world.
Polnareff couldn't rest easy with that information, and neither could Jotaro. The two men find themselves in Egypt once again, kicking off a search for these so-called 'Stand arrows' and, more importantly, the people who now hold them. Newspapers and rumors from old friends in Egypt speak of an old archeological dig site located way out in the desert, where the arrows were rumored to have been first dug-up.
Polnareff thought that he may have been in over his head, chasing down rumors and speculations about a group of artifacts that he isn't entirely sure even exist. However, inaction isn't justice, and Jean Pierre Polnareff is an ally of justice above all things. Mr. Joestar is getting too old, and Jotaro is getting too busy; he was the best man for the job.
"This should be the place," Polnareff said with a dusty map clutched in his hands. The sun had dropped lower in the sky by this point, casting a reddish glow over the sea of sand surrounding the two Stand Users, pillars of crumbling stone standing high upon the horizon. The former dig site was mostly empty, though, despite the years, evidence of digging still remained.
"You didn't bring a shovel."
"Well, I wasn't sure if the dig site lead was true, but..." Polnareff stepped forward, kneeling down in the sand, his gaze directed to several intermittent faults in the dunes, indicators of some intense digging.
"People were digging for something here, Jotaro. We're not digging for anything - other than information on where they are now."
Jotaro nodded, eyebrows slightly raised. He was surprised that Polnareff was taking things slow for once, considering he remembered him being kind of a hothead.
"Right. Where should we start? The map says there's a town not too far from here," he slipped a hand from his pocket to point in a direction.
"If anyone dug anything up here, they probably sold it in those markets. We'll ask around."
"Yeah. You go on ahead, I'll stay here and see if I can dig anything up."
"..."
Jotaro gave him a look - an unamused stare.
"What?"
"Polnareff. When was the last time you used Silver Chariot?"
The question rang in Polnareff's head for a few seconds, his expression growing only more bewildered.
"Huh? I don't know."
"Are you sure you aren't rusty?"
"R... RUSTY!?"
Polnareff rose from his kneeling position, his face practically mortified as Jotaro had just insulted his mother or the country of France.
"You think Silver Chariot has gotten rusty?! Just because I'm not getting into fights all the time as you do doesn't mean my Chariot isn't as powerful as it was back then, bastard!"
"Good grief, calm down, it was just a question."
"Eh? Ooh, I get it. You want a fight right now, Jotaro? I bet you my Chariot can still outspeed your Star Platinum," Polnareff said with a daring grin, standing upright and clenching his hands, raising them defensively. An ominous silver glow began to rise off his muscles.
Jotaro squints.
"No, I don't think so."
"What makes you say th--"
Jotaro sighed, clutching his hat.
*BZZZT!*
"-at? Wait, h-huh?!"
The world around Polnareff seemed to skip a beat, his entire body tensing up suddenly before releasing. The moment he blinked, Jotaro seemed to vanish, his whole bulky form ceasing to exist within the space that he was standing in. The Frenchman blinked rapidly, looking around quickly like a lost dog. Did Jotaro just get attacked by an enemy Stand User?
"Jotaro? Hey, Jotaro! Where did you g--"
Alas, when Polnareff turned around, he witnessed a tall, bulky delinquent walking off towards the sunset, the shapes of a distant desert town bright on the horizon. He was already a couple of feet away from Polnareff as if he'd started walking a few seconds ago.
"I'll be back later, Polnareff," he called back without looking, slipping a hand free from his coat to wave back to him lazily.
Polnareff gritted his teeth, silently cursing the delinquent for making a fool out of him with his superior Stand power. Though it'd been a few years since their last visit to Egypt, the man was certain that was just as capable in a fight as he was back then. Somehow, the biggest insult Jotaro could've made to him was mentioning that he'd gone 'soft.' Stupid kid. What the hell does he know, anyway? When was the last time he got in a fight?
Polnareff straightened himself, turning around to find himself now standing alone in the ruins of the former dig site. His black boots left heavy marks in the sand beneath him as he walked to the other end of the vast site, looking between the decaying stone for signs of a recent interaction. The desert did not betray her secrets to the man, remaining still as ice despite the wind kicking up tufts whips of sand across the vast and empty dunes.
The fruitless search ended as Polnareff kneeled down next to one of the irregular holes, squinting around for anything - any sign of human interaction upon it. His blue eyes halted at one piece, brows arching and fingers twitching. Polnareff reached out to the sand, his fingers plucking but a segment of it free from the ground. He shook the sand away from what he'd just grabbed, blowing on it to clearly reveal what it was.
A single lock of bright pink hair.
*BANG!*
"...!"
A shot rang out in the dunes. Polnareff's eyes twitched, but his face did not change; most of his body did the work for him on pure reflex. A flash of silver light shined from his body, twisting about into the shape of a humanoid figure. A thin sliver of light, now hardening into a metallic blade, swiped at the air, slicing something into two.
Polnareff's eyes darted to the ground, spotting the object fall - two halves of a bullet softly clattered to the ground before melting into a hazy orange light. A gasp escaped Polnareff's lips, sending energy to his legs to rise from the field and turn towards the source of the loud gunshot. The light that emerged from his body now solidified into a whole mass - a lithe humanoid figure resembling a silver knight hung in the air by Polnareff's side, swinging its sword upward into a ready position.
Polnareff's brow furrowed, his expression turning into an ugly sneer.
"You must be pretty ballsy to come back here, idiot."
Jingle, jangle, jingle, jangle. Spurred boots jingled softly amidst the quiet scene, a smooth and guttural laugh emanating from its wearer. One hand was kept slipped under his belt, the other stylishly twirling and flipping a steel-colored revolver, which clicked in anticipation for another pull of the trigger. The man grinned widely, freeing his hand from his belt to take a long and joyous drag of his lit cigarette before flicking it to the ground.
"I could say the same 'bout you, monsieur Polnareff."
Hol Horse stood just a few meters away from his old french pal, his trusty Emperor clutched firmly in his right hand and his finger well within range to squeeze the trigger. Polnareff didn't know whether to glare or to smirk at this asshole, so he decided to do both - to which Hol Horse did the same. Silver Chariot lacked the mouth to grin, so it instead stared intently at the enemy Stand User, its rapier now pointing to him in a prime fencing position.
"I don't know if a dumbass country boy like you even knows how to read, but in case you didn't hear the news, your employer has been dead for the past couple of years. Why the hell are you still in Egypt, Hol Horse? Found someone else's ass to kiss?"
The gunslinger's smirk grew wider, shrugging as he kept his gun pointed towards the other man. Hol Horse couldn't help but smile in the face of his most favorite enemy. It would be like a family reunion if it weren't for the trappings of business tying him down.
"Heh, always the brazen bull. You still think I owe anything to that bastard DIO? You hurt my feelings, Polnareff. See, I'm a free man now. I realized that I should take a break from the mercenary business after you and your buddies put me in a hospital. Thanks for that, by the way."
"I told you that if I had to beat you and you're little peashooter Stand to get to DIO, I would. So, what, you're just here on vacation?"
The cowboy chuckled.
"Somethin' like that. It's only fair that I explain it to you since you and I are old friends. Y'see, I had some personal business to attend to after DIO's organization fell apart. I heard Mr. Jotaro Kujo made quite an impact in Cairo. You didn't seriously think you guys were the only Stand Users around, did you?"
Polnareff stepped back, apprehensive.
"What are you saying...?"
"Well... I came here for one reason, and as it turns out, a gentleman in Italy paid me a pretty penny to do exactly what I was originally planning to do here," Hol Horse grinned wide.
"To kill you and Jotaro Kujo."
Polnareff's eyes went wide, but instead of reacting shocked, he only laughed, leaning forward and putting a hand to his ear, mockingly.
"Huuuuh? Hah! Merci, Hol Horse. You should've become a comedian instead of a mercenary. Hahahah!"
"Heh... heheheheh!"
"Ha-HAHAHAHAH!"
"HEHEHEHEHEH!"
A rock from one of the pillars hit the sand. Silver Chariot broke free from its still stance, lunging forward with its rapier outstretched, poised to pierce the cowboy's throat. Hol Horse leaped back, conjuring a flurry of bullets from Emperor's barrel as he rapidly fanned its hammer.
"I'LL KILL YOU, DUMBASS!"
"I'LL KILL YOU, DUMBASS!"
SOMEONE SUMMONS YOU FROM A LAND FAR AWAY, BRAVE WARRIORS. NOW COME FORTH.
"W-... what the hel--?"
"What in tarnati--"
And then, everything was white.