1999 Bizarre Summer Job

By: The Scollard

Summary: Josuke Higashikata finds himself out of money… again. And just in time for summer vacation, too. To get some much-needed cash, he ends up finding work at one of the many offices near Morioh, and is paired with one of the place's long-time employees, Kosaku Kawajiri. Can the both of them survive this summer job?

Chapter 1

Josuke Higashikata! Needs Some Money, Pronto.

Nothing.

He had nothing. Shaking his wallet, his jaw dropped open from the lack of anything that was coming out. No coins. No bills. Nothing.

This was bad. This was very, very bad. It was the middle of his summer vacation, and he couldn't do anything. And he had so much planned: a visit to beach with Koichi and Okuyasu, trips to Tonio's, or heading into S City with the rest of the gang and having fun for the entire night. But all of those, except for maybe the beach trip if he didn't buy any ice cream, cost money; money that he didn't have.

What was he supposed to do?

He went through his options. His old man was pretty rich, maybe he could use the fact that Joseph had left his only son alone for sixteen years to try to weasel some pity money out of the old geezer. Maybe he could pretend that the rich tycoon forgot to pay him back for the baby supplies from a couple months ago?

Nah… Jotaro wouldn't let him take advantage of Joseph like that, and besides, nowadays, he was getting the feeling that the old guy was a lot smarter than he first seemed.

Maybe he try getting some stuff out of Rohan again? The manga artist never seemed strapped for cash. But that hinged on Rohan letting him into his house and gambling with him again. Considering what happened the last time, Josuke doubted the eccentric weirdo would let him even approach his door, if Rohan already hadn't written "Never bother Rohan Kishibe again" into him using Heaven's Door.

Damn, he couldn't think of anything.

He sighed. If his mother hadn't frozen the cash he had gotten from the lottery ticket, he wouldn't have to worry about this. Okuyasu and Shigechi didn't have their winnings frozen, so why was he so unlucky?

The thought of the fat little middle schooler turned Josuke's mind to darker matters.

Yoshikage Kira.

He'd only seen the serial killer once, at the shoe store. The thought that he was still living in his town, with a new face that hid him from justice, pissed Josuke off. It made him almost as angry as getting his hair insulted. He wished he could pummel the shit out of the blond bastard.

Josuke sighed. Jotaro promised he'd make a mistake eventually. He could focus on Kira when that happened, but until then, there wasn't much he could do.

So, he once again went back to focusing on his money problems.

Seeing no other option, he decided to accept the ultimate humiliation, and do something he thought he never would be forced to do.

"Mom. Mooooooooom," he said, walking down the stairs into the kitchen.

"What is it, Josuke?" His mother was at the stove, cooking something for dinner.

He moved up to the pot, and took a whiff of its contents. "Uh… You're looking beautiful today. What're you making?"

She glared at him. "What do you want?"

"Uh…" He bit his lip. "I was wondering if you could lend me some money for the summer. I don't have enough for the S City trip."

"No." Her answer was quick and blunt.

"Why? Please, Mom. Pleeeease. I need this. I really need this." He was begging now.

"And I said no."

"Then what am I supposed to do? We've already bought the train tickets. I can't just go there with them, and not do anything because I don't have the cash." He sighed. "I'll pay you back after the summer. Hell, you can take it from my birthday and Christmas money if you want to."

"The answer is still no," she said, giving the pot another stir. She turned to look at him. "And if you want money so badly, why don't you consider getting a summer job? A lot of the offices around here are hiring students for the summer. It would be more productive than playing video games all day."

"But then I can't…" He was going to say 'spend time with my friends', but trailed off. Now that he thought more about it, that wouldn't be the case. In fact, it would work out nicely. He would still have the evenings after work and the weekends to shoot the shit with Okuyasu and Koichi, and he didn't do much on weekdays either. And by working, he could make enough money to make their trip into S City a special one. Yeah… now that he thought about it, it would work perfectly.

"Fine," he told his mother, before heading off back to his room.

He'd start handing out his resume tomorrow.

His new boss, a short old man that had probably been here for ages, led him through the rows of cubicles he would be calling his workplace from now until the end of the summer.

"It's wonderful you were able to come today, Higashikata. I didn't expect to find anyone available this late after the vacation started, and on such short notice too. It seems that every other qualified student has already found a position."

"Thank you for hiring me, sir," he said. Even he was surprised by how quickly he found a job. It seemed like only yesterday that he had started looking at the postings and sending out his resume, probably because it was yesterday. Well, actually, the day before yesterday.

Instead of wearing his usual school uniform, he was in a suit. He managed to convince his father to pay for that, so his son could end up being a productive member of society. It was kind of stuffy, and still felt a little stiff, but he could endure it.

"I have to say, in this workplace, I haven't seen many people with hairstyles such as yours. It reminds me of those unproductive delinquents always hanging around causing trouble."

Josuke's eye twitched. "What did you say about…" He stopped himself. He couldn't get fired on his first day of work because he punched his boss in the face. "… Never mind."

"Even though it said on your resume that you have no prior work experience, I expect you to pick up the job quickly. The work you will do here isn't that complicated, so no mistakes. Understood?" his boss asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Good. We understand each other." The older man stopped at one of the cubicles. "You will be working directly under another one of our employees. He will show you the ropes around here, and will tell you what needs to be done. Just do what he says."

He peeked inside the cubicle. It was empty.

"He's probably out delivering some papers at the moment. After I introduce you to him, he will be the person you go to if you have any questions. I have my own work to do. My position means that I can't find the time to supervise a stu— Ah, there he is."

Josuke turned to see a man with spiky black hair wearing a white suit standing in front of him, carrying a stack of documents in his hands. He looked at Josuke with his eyes wide and his mouth agape.

Josuke didn't understand what he did to provoke that kind of reaction. He hoped it wasn't something to do with his hair.

His new boss motioned to the man. "Josuke Higashikata, I would like to introduce you to one of our long-time employees, Kosaku Kawajiri."

Author's Note: Hey, JoJo fans. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Credit goes out to Reddit user /u/PerfectScarlet for the idea of Josuke getting a job in Kira's office. I'll be using more from the topic on /r/StardustCrusaders that idea came from, as well as other sources as this fic goes on. I would also like to thank all the people who read over this story, and gave me their opinions on the chapter.

This takes place post Yoshihiro discovering his son was hiding as Kosaku. I like to imagine this would have been the outcome if Kira hadn't been insulted by Minako and her boyfriend on the train. There would have been no Hayato filming Kira, no Kira losing his temper, and no Bites the Dust. Rohan would have probably talked with Hayato, but found nothing, and Kira's identity would have never been discovered.

Will it be discovered? Who knows? Stay tuned to find out.