A quiet town, with soft afternoon sunlight spilling across the streets.
An old man wearing a green hat sat on a long bench basking in the sun. Nearby, three or four children were kicking a ball along the street, and a guitarist was playing a tune.
The autumn breeze gently blew past, lifting the golden ginkgo leaves scattered across the ground.
All in all…
The years were peaceful and kind.
In stark contrast to this tranquility, Ryosuke and the other two, who had just been swept here by a torrent of calamity and were fully on guard, looked especially out of place.
Hot Pants held a gun in one hand while shielding the Frost Traveler with the other, scanning left and right. She saw the smartphones in people's hands, as well as cars in the distance and television advertisements.
"So this is nineteenth-century England?" she asked.
"No."
Ryosuke looked around. "The level of technology here is roughly that of the early twenty-first century, around 2000 to 2010."
The people, and their appearances, were mostly Eastern.
Knowing only the era was useless.
The JOJO story series spans a huge stretch of time. What really mattered was the location. As long as he knew where he was, Ryosuke could determine exactly which world he had arrived in.
"Why not just grab someone and ask?" Uchiha Madara said.
Hot Pants lowered her voice. "Be careful. The way people here are looking at us feels a bit strange."
Ryosuke glanced at the three of them. He couldn't really blame anyone else, armor, riding clothes, dressed like they had just walked off a film set. Anyone would stare a little more.
Uchiha Madara was highly skilled and fearless. Moreover, he had long been used to being looked up to wherever he went. He walked straight toward the green-hatted old man sunning himself on the bench and tossed a few copper coins over.
"Hey, old man. Where is this place?"
Throwing money, asking questions.
A standard strongman's way of asking for directions.
The green-hatted old man glanced at the copper coins on the ground, then looked at Uchiha Madara and said with a chuckle, "Asking for directions… sure, no problem. But before that..."
He turned and pointed to the corner of the wall behind him.
There stood a tall cabinet displaying many pieces of porcelain. Price tags were attached below them, each followed by a long string of zeros. Beside it was a small general store.
Clearly, these were items put out for sale to the public.
Only now, all the porcelain had been smashed to pieces on the ground.
The green-hatted old man continued, "Sir Longhair, you knocked over my porcelain rack. Please compensate me for the corresponding loss first, and then we can talk about directions."
'Compensation… loss?'
Uchiha Madara hadn't touched a single thing, yet this old man accused him of breaking the porcelain. This was blatant extortion.
And what did he mean by "Sir Longhair"?
Back when Madara was young, the ninja world was chaotic and turbulent. He had seen all kinds of scoundrels. He didn't bother arguing with the green-hatted old man. He reached out and grabbed for the man's collar, deciding to make him wake up properly.
"Hey, hey, hey! Are you going to use violence? I knew you'd be this kind of person, so I had my grandson record it in advance!"
As the green-hatted old man spoke, a boy of eight or nine rushed over, took out a phone, and tapped play.
Ryosuke stepped over to take a look.
In the video, as Uchiha Madara walked toward the green-hatted old man, his entire body was unnaturally yanked forward, crossing four or five meters in an instant and smashing straight into the porcelain cabinet, then in the next moment, snapping back to where he originally stood.
Throughout the entire process, Uchiha Madara didn't notice anything at all.
"See that? Don't even think about denying it. Since you're an outsider, I'll give you a discount. Five hundred thousand, and we'll pretend this never happened!"
As he spoke, the green-hatted old man pointed toward the street not far away.
Two police officers were patrolling on duty.
"If you don't pay, I'll call the police."
Blatant extortion.
Bizarre bodily movement.
Uchiha Madara and Hot Pants immediately reacted.
A Stand attack.
They had encountered a Stand user.
The gentle nun, Hot Pants, immediately drew her gun and pressed it against the green-hatted old man's face. "Are you a Stand user?! Did Dio send you?!"
Uchiha Madara said, "Whether he is or not, to be safe, just kill him first."
With the dark, cold muzzle pressed against his forehead, and hearing Madara's murderous words, the green-hatted old man's legs went weak on the spot.
"Not him," Ryosuke said.
The moment they arrived, he had felt that the street before him was incredibly familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before. It wasn't until he saw the video on the phone that Ryosuke finally confirmed where they were.
Morioh Town: Extortion Road.
Not the Morioh Town that Ryosuke had visited before for the Killer Queen trial mission.
This was the Morioh Town of JOJO Part 8: JoJolion.
In terms of the timeline, JoJolion is separated from Steel Ball Run's SBR race by more than a hundred years.
Unlike Parts 1 through 7, which leaned toward hot-blooded, classic heroic storytelling, JoJolion follows a mystery-driven route,
An amnesiac young man, Josuke Higashikata, continuously searches for the truth of his own identity, while confronting an organization known as the Rock Humans.
In terms of conflict and drama, the mystery-style JoJolion doesn't have many so-called "iconic scenes."
For example, Jotaro brutally beating Dio. Or the appearance of Gold Experience Requiem. Or Jotaro's final words before being killed by Father Pucci, "Five seconds is still too short."
But JoJolion created one of the most oppressive and most unsolvable bosses in JOJO history, Wonder of U.
The plan involving the Saint's Corpse was meant to have Ryosuke start with the simplest enemies, vampires.
With Ryosuke's Ultimate Lifeform physique, even without a Stand, he could wipe out Vampire Dio and his army of zombies just by taking a walk.
But now…
"It starts with Wonder of U right from the beginning?!"
The moment Ryosuke thought of that name...
Drrr! Drrr!
The phone in the green-hatted old man's hand rang. He instinctively tapped to answer.
An aged, unfamiliar voice, somewhat like a broken electronic signal, came from the receiver, cutting in and out.
With Ryosuke's hearing, he could naturally hear it perfectly clearly.
"Hello, Mr. Ryosuke."
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wonder of U. The Saint's Corpse you desire…"
"…is in my hands."
With that, the call ended.
"In his hands?" Uchiha Madara had also heard the conversation. "So that means if we want the corpse, we have to find this guy called 'Wonder of U' first?"
As soon as the words fell, a ginkgo leaf was lifted by the wind and flew toward Uchiha Madara.
Ryosuke's hair stood on end.
He shoved Uchiha Madara aside, sharply raised his hand, and caught the flying ginkgo leaf. The next second...
BOOM!
An explosion that resounded through the soul erupted.
With just a single strike, one of Ryosuke's arms vanished into thin air.
Had the calamity's attack descended?
Although Wonder of U was powerful, it also had its limitations.
A single phone call was not enough for it to lock Ryosuke as a calamity target.
Wonder of U's calamity lock has three methods.
Face-to-face contact.
Person-to-person transmission, that is, coming into contact with someone already locked by calamity, which spreads it.
Object-to-person transmission, touching an item on which Wonder of U has deliberately placed calamity.
Ryosuke abruptly looked at the green-hatted old man.
This old man had been scamming money on Extortion Road for years. Meeting Ryosuke today was his calamity.
Clearly, the green-hatted old man was a "pathogen" placed in advance by Wonder of U.
Because they had come into contact with the green-hatted old man, Wonder of U was able to lock onto Ryosuke and the other two with calamity without directly contacting them.
And this method of explosion…
Ryosuke's pupils shrank.
He knew it all too well.
Killer Queen: First Bomb.
Almost instantly, Ryosuke figured out the enemy's tactics.
Just like reviving Vanilla Ice and Enrico Pucci, Yoshikage Kira had been resurrected by Dio and had teamed up with Wonder of U.
Wonder of U's ability is to drive a torrent of calamity. As long as the thought of pursuing Wonder of U arises, calamity will strike, small as raindrops, large as collapsing buildings. Endless calamities will come crashing down.
The only way to escape is to abandon the pursuit of Wonder of U.
But with the Saint's Corpse in the enemy's hands, how could Ryosuke possibly give up?
And maintaining the intent to pursue meant suffering the enemy's coordinated attacks,
Driven by calamity, Yoshikage Kira didn't even need to get close. He could stay hidden in some deserted corner, have Killer Queen touch a single leaf, toss it casually into the air, and the wind would carry it down onto Ryosuke.
"Don't think about pursuing Wonder of U anymore," Ryosuke warned.
But thoughts are exactly the kind of thing that, the more you try not to think about them, the more they come to mind.
For example, if someone told you right now not to think about a beauty with great figure, you'll instead start imagining one in your head.
The next second, a violent gust of wind rose.
Countless leaves, carrying surging calamity, swept in like a tide.