Covered?
It was baseless conjecture, bordering on absurd, but it was also the most logical explanation she had right now.
The final villain of Part 7, Steel Ball Run, was the American president, whose Stand was Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, commonly known as D4C. Its ability could send people or objects to parallel worlds through the action of being sandwiched between two surfaces. Had she accidentally triggered it?
But that didn't add up either. Inori made sandwiching motions all the time in daily life. Just pulling a blanket over herself in bed counted, and she did that every single night. Why would it activate now of all times?
And there were no Stands in the world of Guilty Crown! That made the whole thing even more baffling.
On top of that, parallel worlds were two nearly identical versions of the same reality. But "Inori" as a character only existed in the Guilty Crown world. Even if she really had been hit by D4C and crossed into a parallel world, it should have been another version of the same Guilty Crown world. How had she ended up in JoJo?
Clinging to these doubts, Inori decided to run a quick test.
She patted her pockets. All her belongings had been in her overcoat, which was now lost in the previous world. She turned her pockets inside out and came up with nothing, not even a single coin.
"Hey, Yasuho, could you hold out your hand for me?"
"…? What for?"
Yasuho blinked, not understanding, but extending a hand seemed harmless enough.
Inori suddenly seized it. Yasuho felt an involuntary shiver run through her. The girl's hand was ice-cold and impossibly soft. Part of her wanted to let Inori keep holding on a little longer, but Inori released her almost immediately, because what she had actually done was place Yasuho's hand on top of her own head.
She sat like that for a moment, eyes half-closed, lips pressed together, as if concentrating on the warmth of the hand, or maybe waiting for something to happen.
"…What are you doing?"
Yasuho frowned. This cute pink-haired girl didn't seem entirely all there. Was this supposed to be comforting? Some kind of muscle memory connected to family?
"Nothing happened."
Inori lowered Yasuho's hand, shaking her head in disappointment.
It was still all a mystery. If she really had been affected by D4C, then right now, sandwiched between Yasuho's hand and the car seat, the ability should have activated and sent her to another world. But nothing had happened. So what was going on?
Could it be that her crossing into this world wasn't coincidental at all?
"It's nothing, Yasuho. I just thought it might help me remember something."
Inori put on a dazed, silly smile.
"Didn't work, though."
"Don't worry about it."
Seeing that endearingly helpless, slightly ditzy expression, Yasuho couldn't help but let out a small laugh.
"You'll remember eventually. Morioh may be a small town, but the officers here are pretty reliable."
"I hope so."
…
…
The taxi pulled up at the Morioh police station. It was afternoon, with three hours still to go before dinner.
The Hirose siblings accompanied Inori to file a report. Running a background check in a town of fifty thousand was simple enough, but in an era before widespread internet access, all they could confirm was that Inori was an outsider. The police promised to help search for her family, but judging by their disinterested attitudes, they clearly weren't taking it seriously.
"What the hell was that? They didn't take it seriously at all!"
The moment they stepped out of the station, Yasuho spat out an irritated complaint.
She had just been singing the officers' praises, and now she was eating those words.
"Can't really blame them. Apparently there's been another disappearance this week. That makes three this year. It makes sense that the police would prioritize the more urgent cases."
Koichi offered a strained smile and a meek explanation.
He really was remarkably short. Walking alongside two girls, he was somehow the shortest of the three.
"Inori, you can stay at our place for now." Yasuho collected herself and turned to Inori with a smile. "A girl staying at the police station isn't appropriate, so I turned that down for you."
"Really? Are you sure?"
Inori widened her eyes in pleasant surprise. Staying at the police station was the last thing she wanted. Getting close to the Hirose siblings and building a good relationship was exactly what she needed right now.
She hadn't even had to try. Yasuho had opened the gates herself and rolled out the welcome mat. It caught Inori off guard, because in the original story, when Yasuho first encountered the male lead Josuke, she had wanted nothing to do with him. She had nearly written him off as a kidnapping psychopath.
The perks of being a pretty girl, perhaps.
"Of course it's fine." Yasuho waved it off like it was nothing. "Don't worry about it. Our house is pretty big. One more person won't be a problem."
Why is it that in every world, the first girl I meet brags about how big her house is?
Inori fell into a brief moment of philosophical contemplation.
"Wait, she's staying at our house?" Koichi stood rooted to the spot.
"Problem?" Yasuho shot back in a pointed tone, the faintest smirk tugging at her pale pink lips.
"N-no! That's not what I meant… I'm just a little surprised…"
The short boy turned his face away, his voice shrinking to a mumble.
"Those cops are obviously useless. A fragile girl like her can't just be left there." Yasuho sniffed dismissively. "Besides, there are two empty rooms upstairs. She can stay until the police find her family. And it won't be for free, mind you."
"If there's anything I can do, just say the word." Inori smiled agreeably, playing the part of a harmless, clueless girl to perfection. "Cooking, cleaning, whatever you need."
"No, it's not something that simple."
Yasuho suddenly fixed her with a look that carried a conspiratorial glint. A small chill ran down Inori's spine.
"What is it, then?"
"You'll find out in a couple days."
Yasuho pressed a finger to her lips with a wink. That look, that expression, Inori recognized it all too well. It was the look of a hunter watching prey take the bait. The same smile Inori herself wore whenever she was scheming something devious.
"It's something only you can help me with."
Oh no, she's going to use us, Inori, Mana chimed in. Inori was used to the sudden commentary by now and didn't flinch.
It's fine. She's not a Stand User… at least not yet.
Inori knew that Koichi's Stand was Echoes, which progressed through three distinct acts with different abilities. Its most iconic moment was spelling out the English profanity "S.H.I.T." in letter-form attacks. Yasuho, as the parallel-world heroine, should also have a Stand, but what it was remained a mystery to Inori, who had never read the manga closely enough to find out.
Oh, boo-hoo. I'm such a sweet, innocent little pink-haired girl, and here you are teaming up with this Yasuho to drag my good name through the mud! At this rate, nobody's going to believe pink-haired girls can be decent people!
…
Inori couldn't be bothered to respond to that, though the fact that Mana could crack jokes like this meant her mood had improved at least a little.
"Let's go. Home!"
Whether it was because of Inori's arrival or something else entirely, Yasuho's earlier frustration and hesitation had melted away. There was a spring in her step now.
Come to think of it, when Koichi came to find her earlier, he mentioned something about being tricked by a man. That's probably not about Josuke, is it? Whatever. Not really my concern.
Whatever Yasuho had in mind, as long as it wasn't too outrageous, Inori could probably handle it easily.
Probably.