5Disclaimer: A Song of Ice and Fire is the property of George R.R. Martin. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is the property of Hirohiko Araki. I own neither of them, this is something I write both for my and others' enjoyment.
A Bizarre World of Ice and Fire
Part I
The Game
Bizarre Arrivals
KAKYOIN
Cairo, Egypt – 1989
"Take this, DIO! My 20-meter radius Emerald Splash!"
"You fool! You soon shall know… that the power of my Stand, [The World] is absolute!"
One moment, his adversary was in front of him. In the blink of an eye, he was not.
Then pain. Lack of strength. More pain. There was a hole in his stomach. Hard… to think… Pain. Mom and dad…? The enemy was there, and then he wasn't. Time… A realization. A last move born out of desperation.
Please… figure it out… Mr. Joestar.
And so, the Hierophant, Noriaki Kakyoin, fell.
Dark.
Cold.
Ice.
Kakyoin couldn't move. He also found himself unable to talk, to scream. He could only see and hear.
He found himself in the center of a large room built completely in stone, probably the largest he had ever been in. It reminded him of the insides of those enormous European churches that he had only seen in pictures in a textbook.
Around him were many men, all of them clad in black clothes and black, thick capes. All of them kneeling, back bent completely and their foreheads against the floor.
What was this? Where was he? Was this death? Had DIO killed him? Was this Hell, Heaven, Limbo? The anteroom to reincarnation? What? How? Where? What had happened? He was fighting, then... Had he... truly died? Had Mr. Joestar figured DIO and [The World's] ability out? Had they won? Had they lost?
"Brothers!" someone yelled at the end of the room, and all the questions swarming Kakyoin's head left him. "My brothers of the Night's Watch!"
Kakyoin looked ahead. Where the voice had come from stood a man dressed in the same attire as the rest of the men assembled there. His hair, of a dark brown, fell over his shoulders in a wild mane, a beard of the same color adorned a jaw that belonged to a long face. There was a white, five-pointed crown over his head. He had cruel, grey eyes.
"I knelt as Lord Commander!" the man proclaimed. "But by the grace and wisdom of my Queen, now I rise as King of Night Everlasting!"
Then another figure stepped forward from the shadows behind the man. And Kakyoin saw it was a [woman]... but not a [human being]. She was too tall, her arms and legs too long, her face too beautiful, her hair too white, her skin too pale...
She looked at him with eyes so cold and hateful that they burned. And Kakyoin knew. He knew [she] was looking at [him].
Her lips didn't move. But he heard her voice within his head.
"Everything is within the flow of causality, Child from Beyond the Veil."
The voice threatened with splitting his mind in two. He opened his mouth and tried to scream, but no sound came out.
And then he fell again.
Light.
Heat.
Fire.
He still couldn't talk or move.
Where was he now? It was warm... no, more than warm. It was hot. And someone was screaming.
Kakyoin found himself within another room built of stone. This one considerably better lit than the previous one. And with fewer people in it.
A man in his... late fifties? His sixties? Kakyoin had always been awful when it came to discern someone's age. The man had white hair, so he must be old. Dressed in weird, yet clearly expensive clothes. There were others, too, dressed in clothes as strange as the white-haired man's.
A couple of old men in reddish brown clothes carrying jars full of... something green. A man dressed in what Kakyoin could only describe as robes similar to a European Christian priest and a thick chain around his neck.
Then there was a man. Quite old. Yet he was a tall man. And bulky. Taller than Jotaro? Probably. He had a white cape over his shoulders, and was dressed in medieval armor... which also looked quite European. Was he in Europe? Where in Europe? And... when?
In his arms, the [tall man] held a middle-aged man dressed in rags. Wild, messy and dirty hair fell from his head without grace, and Kakyoin noticed he was missing several teeth. And he was struggling to escape from the larger man's arms... to no avail.
"No! No!" the [man in rags] yelled. It was only then that Kakyoin noticed that the man was crying. "Don't you get it?! You're all going to die! You're all going to burn! And then those assholes will destroy everything you've built!"
"Your Grace... Egg," the [tall man] said. "Mayhaps we..."
"No," the [white-haired man] spoke next. He was holding one of the jars with green stuff inside now. In front of the man, Kakyoin saw seven strange stones, layered in the ground in a strange pattern.
No. Not stones. The shape was... Eggs. They were eggs. Or looked like eggs. What?
"It is the only way."
Then everything was engulfed in flames. Green flames, blue flames, red flames, golden flames, white flames, black flames... An inferno of every possible color Kakyoin could think about. And screams filled the air.
Then from the flames Kakyoin saw [It] emerge. A towering, lanky figure, with arms so long that the tips of the six fingers [It] had on each hand brushed against the ground, Its skin as black as ink or oil. Like a solid, walking, living shadow. A head that had no ears turned towards him, and [It] looked at Kakyoin with a face that had no eyes and no nose. Only a mouth. The mouth opened, revealing block-like golden teeth. And [It] spoke.
"Yet for every new cause, there is a new effect. For every constant, a variable. [Fate] is not written in stone."
Kakyoin screamed a silent scream again.
And once more, he fell.
The North, Westeros – 298 AC
The first breath came slow, hard, and harsh. The ones that came after... less so. Cold, fresh air invaded his lungs with each one he took. His heart was racing. He felt something hard and wet against his back. He was staring into the blue sky. He moved a bit to...
He could move.
His hands shot towards his torso. There was no hole. He was alive. Alive. Alive!
But he was sure he had died. He could... he could remember how... how it had felt. To... fade. And what had those things he had seen been? He didn't know. He only knew he was dead. And now he wasn't. And he was sure that, wherever he was, it wasn't Cairo.
The Crusaders. Dio. [The World].
[Dead.]
Strange visions. Not in Egypt.
[Alive.]
What?
What? What? What?
WhatWhatWhatWhatWhat...
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
He screamed. Heart racing again. Trouble to breathe properly. Body trembling. Fear. Confusion. Fear. Pain. Fear. Fear! FEAR!
A sound at his eight.
"Hierophant Green!" he called, and his Stand came in all its green, elastic glory. His oldest companion shot an Emerald Splash. It collided with a nearby tree, shattering most of its trunk.
Nothing. There was nothing. Yet he had heard something!
Fear! Fear! Fear! His body was shacking out of control. He watched his Stand floating over him, as if trying to figure out a way to help him, to no avail. The world was spinning, and then Kakyoin heard someone yelling.
"Father! Father!"
What? Who? What? English? The world began to become a blur in its spinning... he felt all strength leaving him...
The last thing Kakyoin saw before losing consciousness was a young boy, a child, dismounting from a small pony and running towards him. There was a puppy in his arms. His hair was of a brilliant red and his eyes of the same blue of a clear sky in a cold morning of winter…
His next awakening was gentler than the last. He was lying over something soft and dry instead of hard and wet. When he opened his eyes, what he saw wasn't the clear sky, but a dark ceiling made of stone. He breathed, and despite the darkness of the room, the air wasn't cold at all, and every breath warmed his chest.
"Where am I?" he mumbled in Japanese. Hearing his own voice brought more comfort than anything else. He looked at his surroundings.
He... was in a dark room, lighted by candles. And he was lying over a... bed; or something that he resembled a bed well enough. He moved, and a sheet gently stroke his skin. He took a hand to his torso again. No hole. Alive. He was... His heart skipped a beat. His breath fastened, and the world threatened to spin and blur again. He began to sweat, yet his lips curled into a smile. Alive! Alive! Alive, all gods of all religions be damned! Screw you, DIO! He had survived! Or returned from the Netherworld! Or… whatever! But he lived!
But his torso was also... bare? Wait, was he naked? He touched all over his body. He was naked. What? What had happened to his clothes?!
He supposed that was another question to add to the pile, alongside 'Where in the world am I? How did I get here? Where are Jotaro, Mr. Joestar and Polnareff? How am I still alive? What the hell were those visions I saw?'
"Ah, you are awake," a sound startled him, a voice speaking in... English? It sounded like English. But... different. With a strange accent. "Excellent."
Kakyoin looked in the voice's direction. At the opposite end of the room stood an old, thin man dressed in weird, medieval-looking, grey clothes, with grey eyes and thin grey hair in an almost bald head. Around his neck, the red-headed Crusader spotted a chain.
"Can you understand me?" the grey old man asked next, not giving even a step forward. Suspicious. Careful. Intelligent.
Should I answer? Kakyoin thought. He had understood him perfectly, but by that question alone the Japanese teenager knew that this grey old man didn't know that. Possibly because Kakyoin was Japanese. Which told him a lot. Yes, yes… he must remember about what Mr. Joestar and Abdul had taught the rest of them. The best way to know someone was to talk with that someone, and keep them talking to know how they were, and what they knew.
"I… can understand you," Kakyoin answered.
The grey old man's lips curved into a smile. "Ah, wonderful. That should make things easier," he paused for a few seconds. "I am Luwin," he finally introduced himself, then kept his mouth shut.
He had revealed his name, and clearly expected Kakyoin to reveal his. Ah yes, of course. Mr. Joestar and Abdul had always warned them about this. When you talk with someone… that someone also talks with you. When you are trying to uncover an adversary's weakness, they also seek to uncover yours.
"My name is Tenmei," Kakyoin lied while trying to sound as sincere as possible, the same fake name he had given in Enya's hotel. He didn't think this man evil, but there as no reason to trust him either.
"Tenmei… Tenmei…" the grey old man… Luwin, repeated a couple of times. He was able to pronounce it correctly at first try, to Kakyoin's surprise. "Ah… Are you from the East?"
Kakyoin didn't want to show it, but he didn't like how this man was taking control of the conversation. "yes," he answered, sincerely this time; but there was point in lying there. Anyone could deduce he was an easterner just by looking at him.
"From Yi-Ti?" the so-called Luwin kept asking.
Yi… Ti? Kakyoin thought, confused. He had known the name of every important country in the world since he was a kid, but he had never heard of one with such a name. Yes, he was sure, there was no country named Yi-Ti… yet this man had talked as if there was. Could it be that…? No, ridiculous… But what if…? His head had begun hurting again. "What?" he asked, only to realize his mistake almost instantly.
"Ah… did I mispronounce it?" the so-called Luwin wondered. Had he ignored Kakyoin's slip? Or was he bluffing? "I never was all that good with foreign words, much less ones from so far away. The Great Empire of the East… is that where you are from?"
Great Empire of the East? China? What? Was that how China was known wherever he was whenever this was? "No," Kakyoin answered, at last. "Not the mainland, I'm from…" What? Japan? How was he supposed to answer that? What was this old man playing at? What was he expecting to hear? "The islands," he said, testing the waters.
"Ah!" the man said, his grey eyes lighting up a little. "You are from Leng. Oh, wonderful; there's so little known about that part of the world… You are far away from home, then."
Leng, Leng; Kakyoin repeated within his head. Wasn't that… from that American writer, the one with the books about evil squids… His father used to read those. Why would any place be named after…? Ugh… this was just making him more and more confused, and this man had discovered enough… well, not really; but Kakyoin had questions too! It was time to get some answers of his own.
"Where am I?" the redheaded Crusader asked.
"Oh, yes;" the grey old man said. "You are in Westeros, in Winterfell; under the roof and protection of Lord Eddard of House Stark, Warden of the North; whom I serve as Maester. It was young Brandon, one of his sons, who found you out there, screaming. You should consider yourself lucky, young man. Had the boy not found you, you would have frozen… or worse. The lands of the North can be quite the cruel ones."
Westeros. Winterfell. The North. [Stark]. [Maester]. He tried to make sense of those words. But he couldn't.
"May I ask what were you doing out there alone, and screaming?" the so-called… Maester (What was that? A title? Like Doctor? Like Professor?) Luwin finally asked him.
At last, the question Kakyoin feared the most.
Well, you see, I was fighting a vampire in a city named Cairo, and he killed me, and I woke up out there; the redheaded Japanese young man thought. No, of course he couldn't say that. But what could he say? Lie, he had to lie… No! Half a truth would suffice, until he learned more.
"I was running, I was… fighting, I think;" Kakyoin said, only partially revealing what had happened to him. And truth be told, he actually didn't really know what had happened to him. "Then I…" Died. I died. "then I don't know. There was darkness and… now I'm here."
The Maester nodded. "Very well, rest for now;" the grey old man said, turning on his heels and beginning to leave. "There is a chamber pot under that bed. You will be given food, and clothing. I must talk with my Lord Eddard now, and he will decide what to do with you."
Kakyoin nodded too. It frustrated him. In the end, he hadn't figured much.
"May I have a map?" the redheaded Crusader asked as politely as he could. "So I can know where I am?"
And Maester Luwin turned, tucking at the chain around his neck as if thinking, left, and returned moments later with a folded scroll that he left in the middle of the room, over the floor. Still suspicious, but clearly smart. Kakyoin had to recognize that, had it been his intention to harm the old man, getting him close with the excuse of giving him something would have been a good plan.
"Rest," the Maester said, then began leaving again. "There is nothing to fear," the man finished.
But once the man left, Kakyoin heard the sound of metal against metal, and he finally realized the entrance to the room he was in lacked a door… but it did have bars. A cell. He was a prisoner. Nothing to fear. What a joke.
He sighed heavily, then rested his head on his bed. Next he waited until he judged that he had waited long enough. Then he eyed the folded scroll that had been left over the floor. Mumbling in Japanese, Kakyoin covered himself with his sheet and rose from his bed. Shockingly, the stone under his feet was warm. He picked the paper and returned to the bed at once.
"The Known World," he read aloud in English, the words scribbled in the back of the folded map. Perhaps not the smartest of moves, considering that people could be watching; but he didn't care. Not with what he had in his hands now. Finally, some answers! He unfolded the map, and looked at its contents.
And then his heart, once more, skipped a beat.
No, no, no, no… This was all kinds of wrong! This didn't make any sense, this didn't… It didn't? The thoughts came back once more.
The Crusaders. Dio. [The World].
[Dead.]
Strange visions. Not in Egypt.
[Alive.]
Alive… But not in Egypt. Strange visions. Strange people, dressed in strange clothes that talked in strange ways. Strange names. Not in Egypt… Not in medieval Europe, either. Not in… Earth?
The gears clicked within his brain.
Kakyoin cursed in Japanese as loudly as never before. He jumped from the bed, the sheet falling at his side. Stark naked, the redheaded, Japanese teenager knelt and took the pot from under his bed.
There, he puked out of sheer anxiety.
Heavenly
Those loud, noisy days
It felt nice, like spending time with old friends
Dazzling determination of Emerald
No matter what is waiting ahead
Coda – Goodbye Nostalgia (English Translation)
A/N: Man, this whole writing small chapters thing really helps one to maintain things in order and give a proper beat to the story! Maybe there's a reason writers do it! In all seriousness, this is the beginning of Kakyoin's… er… misadventures, so to speak. Of course, he doesn't know where he is, when he is, the whole 'DIO killed me' thing was traumatic, and realizing he is not in his world anymore just worsens the situation. And the people that found him are distrustful of him, because he's a foreigner in weird clothes that appeared out of nowhere.
You may also have noticed that this chapter has two titles, aside from the one of the story itself. One of them is the one of the character who's POV the chapter is written in, in this case Kakyoin. The other, over the name of the POV character, is the name of the "Arc" so to speak, taking place at the moment. Each "Arc" encompasses a certain amount of POV chapters, therefore allowing me to "fuse" the chapter structure of both Martin and Araki.
And having said that, hope you enjoyed this chapter here. I know it rises more questions than it gives answers… but this is a JoJo x ASOIAF crossover, so that's a given. Leave a review if you feel like it, and until next time.