"Who exactly are you?"
Jotaro Kujo's tone was severe, as if he could activate The World and blow Ryosuke's head off at any moment.
But Ryosuke knew, as long as he was still in Jolyne Kujo's body, that would never happen.
Ryosuke thought for a moment, then once again took out an iron ball. He made it spin in midair on his palm and asked Jotaro, "Do you still remember this?"
During the Killer Queen trial mission, Ryosuke had joined the protagonist team as Hayato Kawajiri and, together with Jotaro Kujo, Josuke Higashikata, and the others, killed Yoshikage Kira.
It had been the iron ball Ryosuke threw that finished off Kira back then.
Ryosuke had always been curious, in different trial missions, were characters who appeared the same actually the same people? Or were they, like Funny Valentine's D4C, parallel-world versions of each other crossing between universes?
"This…"
Jotaro looked at the iron ball and fell into thought.
After a long silence, most of the tension in his eyes gradually faded. Pressing down the brim of his hat, he said, "I do seem to have seen this ability of yours somewhere before."
"But I can't tell whether it was a dream from the past, a delusion I imagined, or something I read in a book."
"I just feel… a strange sense of déjà vu."
Emporio blurted out, "The hippocampal effect."
The so-called hippocampal effect, also known as déjà vu, refers to a physiological phenomenon where someone feels a sense of familiarity toward an event or scene they have never actually experienced before.
At some point in life, everyone has said to a friend, "Ah, what happened today was exactly like something I dreamed years ago! Do I have precognitive powers?"
That's what the hippocampal effect is, when certain environmental details match fragments of memory, the brain's circuits that recognize familiarity overreact, while the memory verification system can't locate the source, triggering a false sense of familiarity.
But Jotaro knew, this was not that simple.
The feeling went far beyond déjà vu. He genuinely saw Ryosuke as someone he had once fought side by side with.
Seeing Jotaro's expression, Ryosuke roughly understood.
Different trial missions corresponded to different parallel worlds. The same individuals across these worlds might retain a faint, blurry sense toward major events or people from other worlds, but nothing more.
Then Ryosuke thought of another question.
If every trial mission corresponded to a different parallel world, would there, like in Steel Ball Run (JoJo Part 7), exist a true main world?
If it did exist, what would the "anchor" of that world be?
In Steel Ball Run, the anchor was the Saint's Corpse, but in a world not rewritten by Made in Heaven, that corpse shouldn't exist yet.
After thinking for a moment, Ryosuke shook his head. He didn't pursue the question further for now, it was unsolvable anyway. He put away the iron ball and said to Jotaro, "Don't worry. I won't hurt Jolyne. I'll be leaving soon."
Jotaro had many questions for Ryosuke, but he was no longer the blunt young man he once was, the one who would beat up everyone just to flush out a hidden enemy.
Time had made him calm.
Jotaro nodded slightly, and Star Platinum quietly faded away behind him.
Ryosuke glanced behind him at C-Moon.
He didn't know if it was because C-Moon was too dumb or because of Jolyne's body's limits, but he couldn't retract it. It could only squat beside him like some village guardian.
"At last, it's over."
The battle with Father Pucci hadn't lasted long, no more than ten minutes in total, but it had been extremely dangerous. Unlike his previous opponents, Pucci's strength didn't lie in his own power.
Because Ryosuke knew the story, he had all the intel on C-Moon, had planned ahead, and had three companions plus Weather Report's disc. In theory, Ryosuke shouldn't have been able to lose.
The only variable was "Fate."
It was as if Pucci carried a "Joestar-slaying buff," something like a lesser version of Gold Experience Requiem's "return to zero."
Even during battle, Ryosuke had to stay on constant guard for possible disasters.
Fortunately, the protection of fate had its limits. At least there hadn't been an earthquake, natural disaster, or falling nuke out of nowhere, just one helicopter crash.
And right when Ryosuke completely defeated Father Pucci, a path of fate spread out before him.
It was invisible, intangible, a speck of dust in the air, a shard of broken glass, a few droplets of blood splattered into red flowers.
To anyone else, these were just random fragments.
But at that moment, in Ryosuke's eyes, they formed a stairway leading toward "Heaven."
With each step he took, a secret phrase appeared before him. When he finished fourteen steps, he had walked the very path to Heaven that had belonged to Pucci.
"Next comes Made in Heaven. But..."
Ryosuke turned his head and looked at C-Moon, who was squatting on the ground, poking Pucci's butt with a broken table leg.
In JoJo's original story, C-Moon had existed for less than a day before evolving into Made in Heaven.
'This guy… could it be that he's just going to stay dumb forever?'
The trial mission was already complete, but Ryosuke didn't choose to return immediately.
He rarely had a chance to visit, and since this was the U.S. space center, he said goodbye to the others, broke through several layers of sealed doors, and found the aerospace research department's office.
Currently, the research institute's space project was at a bottleneck, their crafts could only fly in low Earth orbit, unable to fully escape the planet to reach the vast universe.
Surely the space center had a way to solve that problem.
Ryosuke found piles of blueprints and started reading them one by one.
He had a science and engineering background, and with his excellent memory, even if he couldn't recall something, it wasn't a problem.
'If I really can't remember, when I go back, I'll just have White Snake extract the memories onto a disc, then have Star Platinum recreate the blueprints from it...'
Ryosuke suddenly stopped.
He remembered.
'When I go back… White Snake will probably be gone, won't it?'
Ryosuke went quiet. His expression didn't change much, but his pace of flipping through blueprints slowed considerably.
———
Jotaro listened to Emporio's full account and nodded slightly, understanding everything that had happened.
"A soul that is 'omniscient' to us descended into this world and helped us eliminate an enemy capable of destroying it."
Jotaro summarized, "But there's still one more question."
He exchanged a look with Emporio, and both saw the same answer reflected in each other's eyes.
Jotaro tilted his chin slightly, signaling Emporio to speak first.
Emporio took off his cap.
"If there really are parallel worlds, then there must exist one where Big Brother Ryosuke never appeared. In that world… what happened to us?"
"Did we defeat the priest? Or…"
"Were we wiped out?"
Emporio looked toward Ryosuke, who was still flipping through blueprints in the room.
"If Big Brother Ryosuke can really appear in our memories as a form of 'déjà vu,' could he use that method to pass information to the versions of us in other worlds?"
"If that's really possible…"
Jotaro lowered his gaze, staring at his palm.
After returning from Morioh, he had been busy with work, studies, marriage, and children. There had been many times when he'd thought of giving up training his Stand.
But whenever that thought arose, a distant, unfamiliar voice would echo in his mind, "Practice your time stop more. Treat it as exercise."
"Was that Ryosuke?"
Jotaro thought of his friends from the Stardust Crusaders.
If they had had advance information about DIO, so many of them might not have died.
Unfortunately, time couldn't be reversed. Even if Jotaro could now receive information from Ryosuke and somehow pass it across worlds through déjà vu, it could only rewrite future tragedies, not the past.
"Yare yare."
Jotaro sighed softly, feeling a headache coming on.
Even he, a man who had seen countless Stands, found the idea of parallel worlds a bit too absurd.
He looked toward Anasui and Ermes, who were lying by the door of the research office.
"What are they doing now?"
"Ermes is admiring Big Brother Ryosuke's charm."
"And the other one?"
"The other one…"
Emporio hesitated, then said, "Anasui's probably afraid that Big Brother Ryosuke might take advantage of the chance to secretly touch Sister Jolyne's body."
Jotaro's headache worsened.
What kind of friends did his daughter even make?
Thinking back to his youth, the Stardust Crusaders, all of them had been refined, calm men (and a dog), with gentle smiles and polite manners.
An hour later, Ryosuke stepped out of the research office.
Not because he'd finished reading, but because he simply couldn't memorize any more. He looked at the four people waiting outside. "I should get going."
"So soon?"
Ermes froze, looking reluctant. "You've only been here for less than two hours."
Anasui, in contrast, sighed in relief. It wasn't that he hated Ryosuke, but no man would feel comfortable knowing another guy's soul was living in his girlfriend's body.
"Please wait."
Seeing Ryosuke about to leave, Emporio quickly explained the theory he and Jotaro had discussed earlier.
"Using déjà vu to transmit key information…"
Ryosuke crossed his arms.
He had always worried that because of the JoJo world's unique "fate," revealing information might make things worse instead of better.
That's why, in Morioh, he had only reminded Jotaro to train his time stop.
But now, after personally killing Pucci and taking his "path of fate," Ryosuke realized, maybe things weren't that extreme after all.
If there was any information worth passing on, it would be this, Jotaro should never have children. Stay childfree. That way, Pucci would have no way to reach Heaven, no matter what.
But as for now…
Ryosuke thought for a bit and said, "Carry a shield with you."
In Stone Ocean's final battle, when Pucci's Stand evolved into Made in Heaven, it gained immense speed but lost C-Moon's anti-gravity barrier.
If, in that fight, Jotaro had had a shield, something to throw and block the knife Pucci flung at Jolyne, everything could have ended differently.
"A… shield?"
Jotaro didn't understand why, but he nodded seriously, letting that suggestion echo repeatedly in his mind until it was burned into memory.
"Then… everyone, goodbye."
Ryosuke nodded to them all and chose to return.
Jolyne's body swayed slightly as she came to. "Where am I…? Huh?! Dad!"
The rest of the conversation Ryosuke couldn't hear.
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[White Snake Trial Mission complete.]
[Unlocked: C-Moon.]
[C-Moon]
[Level: 5 (Max 6)]
[Owner: Enrico Pucci]
[Description: A fully autonomous long-range humanoid Stand, an intermediate form between White Snake and the ultimate Stand Made in Heaven, centered on the manipulation of gravity.]
[Ability 1: Gravity Manipulation: C-Moon can alter and control gravity within a radius of three kilometers around its user.]
[Ability 2: Inversion Attack: C-Moon's attacks change the direction of gravity on the target, causing it to invert. If it touches the same target or area twice, the effect reverses.]
[Ability 3: Time Acceleration (Limited): Can slightly accelerate the flow of time for touched objects. However, since C-Moon is only a transitional form before Made in Heaven, the speed and duration of acceleration cannot be controlled.]
[Note: "Do you believe in gravity?"]
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Ryosuke was already deeply familiar with all three abilities. What mattered most was the first one, gravity control.
When Pucci first gained C-Moon, his subconscious rejection of others caused him to become a center of reversed gravity, repelling all people and things from his proximity while he awaited the moment of Heaven.
But once Ryosuke acquired C-Moon, he immediately noticed, its gravity control wasn't nearly that limited.
Repel, attract, increase, or weaken, as long as he willed it, Ryosuke was the absolute master of gravity within three kilometers.
Ryosuke slowly opened his eyes.
He called for White Snake.
No response.
Only C-Moon appeared behind him.
Nagato stared, stunned, at the unfamiliar new Stand.
He had been ready, ready to face death alongside Ryosuke and the millions of civilians within Kyoto, ready for the moment eighteen Tailed Beast Bombs fell.
His smile froze.
Nagato lost control of his Chibaku Tensei.
Crash!
The massive sphere of rock disintegrated, raining debris from the sky.
Ryosuke glanced at Nagato and said softly, "You stand too high."
Because you stand too high, you see millions as ants, as pawns for your imagined future.
That's not right.
Ryosuke raised his hand, pointed at Nagato, then lowered his finger.
Nagato's body, floating in midair, suddenly plummeted.
His pupils went slack. His Rinnegan didn't change, he could still control gravity, but an overwhelming force far beyond his own had stripped him of the power to soar through the sky.
Ryosuke didn't even look at him crash into the ground. He accelerated abruptly, reaching the edge of Kyoto.
By now, the eighteen Tailed Beast Bombs had crossed several kilometers. In the next second, they would smash through Kyoto's walls and turn this centuries-old city into a wasteland.
Ryosuke stood atop the wall. The fierce wind whipped through his hair but couldn't shake his resolve.
In his eyes reflected the brilliant light of the Tailed Beast Bombs, the glow of destruction.
Sasuke, Itachi, Nagato, Konan, Obito, Tokugawa Ieyasu…
Everyone, whether watching from the scene or observing through cameras from afar, the nobles, the lords, the tycoons, all subconsciously held their breath.
This one strike would decide the fate of the world.
"I see it now… This is..."
Sasuke murmured softly, "The rushing 'World' train."
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