JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Thin Air

Chapter Nine: Goodbye Blue Sky (Part I)

The following morning, the Joestar group traveled to London, in order to fly to New York. They arrived at Heathrow's Terminal Five.

"It isn't wise to be flying directly to Dallas, even though it's possible," Josuke said, explaining why he booked a flight to New York. "We don't know who we could run into on the way. We need to use as many options as we can."

The group made it to the waiting area of the gate. The three students sat in seats, relaxing, while Josuke kept an eye and ear out for enemy Stand users. He sent Crazy Diamond to look around the immediate area. Once he knew that no threat could be found, he called it back.

"The coast is clear. There are no Stand users in the vicinity." Josuke announced to the three youth. None of them paid attention to him, as earbuds were plugged into all of their ears. Well, the ears of the girls, at least. He smiled as he remembered his own teenage life, with memories of him ignoring his father coming back to him.

Clapton sat, leaning forward, twiddling his thumbs. Josuke sensed that something was not alright.

"Keith, are you okay?" he asked the young man.

"Eh, sure." Clapton said dismissively.

"Doesn't look like it. What's wrong?"

Clapton sighed as he straightened his back and turned his gaze towards Josuke.

"This is my first time really flying abroad. The one and only time I've ever left the country was when I had a week-long tournament in Australia last year. Back then, I had my teammates and coach with me, and we had a really great time, but now... it just feels different."

Josuke put a reassuring hand on Clapton's back.

"It's normal to feel nervous when you're doing something for the first time. The only way to get rid of it is to fully experience it. So just relax, and flow with it. If it helps, think of us as a team. We're Team Joestar." Josuke said.

Clapton felt a sense of calm returning to him. He wasn't sure whether it was Josuke's words that made him start to feel better, or his soft, kind voice, or even its cadence and the way it flowed. Either way, it caused his anxiety to gradually disappear.

Soon, an automated voice on the speakers resonated throughout the Terminal.

"British Airways Flight 92, from London to New York departing in 15 minutes! Please head to Gate 24."

"Well," Josuke said, standing up. "That's us. It's time to get going."

~~~

Several hours had passed. The Airbus A350 1000 was 35,000 feet above somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Josuke sat beside a napping Shizuka, while Clapton and Monica both sat alone in nearby rows. Monica gazed out her window, staring at the vast, blue sky that the plane was travelling through, and the clouds below her. She found it interesting how the sky covered the entire planet, how people had been looking at it for millennia, then developed the technology to fly through it just over a century ago. She wondered what people like Constantine the Great or Augustus would think of how much society had progressed. As she looked on into the great blue expanse, she swore she could notice small shapes flying parallel to the plane, zipping through the clouds below. They were probably two hundred meters away from the plane. 

"Are those... birds?" she thought to herself. "No, impossible. I'm certain that only Ruppell's griffon vultures can fly this high. They don't even live in this part of the world. And those things aren't the same color as them... they're yellow. Yellow like highlighters."